Rhoda Karpatkin, who pressed for painstaking product testing for safety and quality while promoting comparison shopping for value during more than four decades at Consumers Union as counsel, executive director and president, died on Friday at her home in Manhattan. Ms. Karpatkin, a New York lawyer and civil rights advocate, had served for 16 years as the nonprofit organization’s counsel when she was selected in 1974 as executive director, the first woman to hold that position. Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, later changed its name to Consumer Reports. “Rhoda led CR to become the trusted name and consumer champion we are today,” Marta L. Tellado, the president and chief executive of Consumer Reports, said in a statement. Ms. Karpatkin also raised $40 million to build a new headquarters in Yonkers, N.Y., and an automobile testing track.

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Persons: Rhoda Karpatkin, Deborah Karpatkin, Karpatkin, “ Rhoda, CR, ” Marta L Organizations: Consumers Union, Consumer Locations: Manhattan, New York, Yonkers, N.Y