By Greg Hazley
Don Kirchoffner, a 26-year U.S. Army public affairs veteran and former board member of PRSA, died Jan. 10 in Boulder, Colo., after a three-year fight with cancer. He was 68.
Kirchoffner had recently run his own firm out of Broomfield, Colo., and served on PRSA's board of directors in 2009-10. He left the Army at the rank of colonel after 26 years culminating with the post of chief of media relations for that military branch.
He worked PA on the ground after Iraq invaded Kuwait to spark the first Gulf War, was director of communication for Kurdish Relief Operations in Iraq after the war, and served in Europe during the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Kirchoffner previously was director of communications for the American Red Cross' biomedical services division and VP of comms. for Commonwealth Edison in Chicago, a predecessor to Exelon, among other posts. He was a member of the Army Public Affairs Hall of Fame and the Arthur W. Page Society.
Kirchoffner is survived by his wife, Elaine, daughters Megan and Jill, son Matt and four grandchildren. |