Alvin "Al" Colborn Croft, author of Managing a PR Firm for Growth & Profit and publisher of the monthly newsletter Management Strategies for PR Firms, died June 19 in the Village of Oak Creek, Ariz. He was 87.
Croft's firm, based in Sedona, Ariz., also conducted an annual seminar for PR counselors.
His Managing a PR Firm book was called a "must read" for PR counselors by CPA Richard Goldstein.
Surviving is his wife Irene.
Croft founded his firm in 1987 after a long career in PR. A 1951 graduate of Michigan State, he worked until 1956 at Sutherland Paper.
Other posts were Whirlpool, 1956-58; Illinois Institute of Technology, 1959; Celotex Corp., 1960-62; Ketchum, McLeod & Grove, 1962-70; The Latent Image, 1970-72; Aitkin-Kynett, 1973-78, and Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt, 1978-87.
He rose to senior VP and Midwest regional manager of BJK&E.
Croft was a longtime member of PR Society of America and its Counselors Academy.
While his articles and book concentrated on helping firms to be profitable, he also provided his opinion on key issues from time to time.
He was a stout critic of the PR Society's press-boycotting policies, writing in one of his NLs that "PR people do not advise clients to boycott critical media." The Society's press boycott, he wrote, was a "horrendous example" of press avoidance and the reasons presented by the Society board for the boycott are "lame brain" and a "real turn-off."
Hugh Braithwaite, founder of Braithwaite Communications in Philadelphia, died Feb. 28. He was 63.
Alfred Horowitz, who was a PR counselor, educator, businessman and philanthropist, died February 14 of natural causes. He was 93.
Ginger Reeder, the former VP-corporate communications at Neiman Marcus, died Jan. 9. She was 64.
José Antonio Llorente, founding partner and executive chairman of Spain’s LLYC, died from cancer on Jan. 1. He was
Bob Dorf, who founded his own firm and then ran Dorf & Stanton with Alex Stanton, died Dec. 2. He was 74.
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