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The Washington Post remembers Jack O'Dwyer as the 'soul and conscience of the PR industry." His PR newsletter "made him an industry watchdog and, in the view of many, raised the standards of the PR profession." (1 reader comment)
Jack O'Dwyer, who launched his pioneering Jack O'Dwyer's Newsletter 50 years ago, died Dec. 19. He was 85. (75 reader comments)
Gwinavere Johnston, who founded her Denver PR firm in 1975, died Nov. 1 by taking advantage of Colorado’s medical-aid-in-dying law after struggling with her diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy. (3 reader comments)
Ken Koprowski, former VP-communications at General Electric, New York University adjunct professor and head of his own PR firm, has died.
Paul Bloch, who was chairman of Hollywood PR powerhouse Rogers & Cowan, died May 25 after a long illness. He was 78.
Dennis McGrath, a former president/CEO of Mona, Meyer, McGrath & Gavin, died May 13. He was 81.
Gus Weill, Louisiana PR man, political strategist and writer, died April 13 at a hospice in Baton Rouge. He was 85. (1 reader comment)
Tom Harris, who served as president and partner of Golin Harris as well as being an author, independent management consultant and adjunct professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, died March 26 after a long illness. (1 reader comment)
Jay Rockey, who built The Rockey Co. into the largest PR firm in the Pacific Northwest and sold the shop to Hill and Knowlton in 2000, died Feb. 24. He was 90. (1 reader comment)
Mary Frances Fagan, who served in the American Airlines corporate PR department for 23 years, died Feb. 4 of complications from brain cancer. She was 63.
Herb Schmertz, the combative Mobil Oil PR exec who pioneered the use of “advertorials” to take on critics of Big Oil, died Jan. 17 from congestive heart failure. He was 87. (2 reader comments)
Louis C. Williams, Jr., founder of Chicago-based L.C. Williams & Associates, has died at the age of 77.
Peter Greer Osgood, 76, vice chairman of Hill & Knowlton from 1986-91 after serving as president/CEO of Carl Byoir & Assocs. from 1983-86, died July 22 in Sedgwick, Me.
Jack Trout, co-author in 1981 with partner Al Ries of Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, which sold 2 million+ copies, died June 5 at his home in Greenwich, Conn.
Herb Kraus, the Chicago publicist who represented Inland Steel, Rev. Martin Luther King, Vienna Sausages and taught PR at Columbia College for three decades, died May 20. He was 95.
Joe Hyams, who spent 45 years at Warner Bros handling stars such as Clint Eastwood, died May 31 in Los Angeles. He was 91. (1 reader comment)
Edward Grefe, former New York and Washington, D.C., executive who became an authority on grassroots political campaigns, died Feb. 17, 2016. His obit was published in the April 17 Washington Post.
Al Golin, the original public relations counsel to McDonald’s and founder of the Chicago-based firm Golin, died April 8 at age 87. (5 reader comments)
Pam Edstrom, 71, partner and co-founder of WE Communications, who was “the commanding voice behind Microsoft’s story” as it grew into a software giant, died March 28 after a four-month battle with cancer.
Howard Blankman, 91, a PR counselor who was a leader in community affairs and an accomplished composer and musician, died March 17 in his home in Port Washington, L.I.
Gershon Kekst, founder and chairman emeritus of corporate, financial and M&A communications advisory giant Kekst and Company, died on March 17. He was 82.
Joyce Newman, 74, founder of The Newman Group, New York, who showed professionals and celebrities in the U.S. and abroad how to improve their skills in presentations and media interviews, died Jan. 7.
Marilyn Castaldi, a healthcare PR pro who held leadership positions at Burson-Marsteller, FleishmanHillard and Hill & Knowlton Strategies, passed away on January 5. She was 71.
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