Gordon Conley, a journalist and veteran PR executive at J. Walter Thompson’s PR operation, died Oct. 26 of natural causes. He was 92.
Conley spent 18 years from the mid-1960s to early 1980s at JWT PR, the stand-alone PR agency that was part of the advertising juggernaut, focused on accounts like Kodak, Bausch & Lomb, Eli Lilly and the Marine Corp. He later freelanced and did editorial duty for Genomic Health Inc. and Wholepoint Inc., working until he was 89.
The son of a Union Pacific Railroad engineer and housewife, Conley was born in Kentucky but raised in Colorado and served as a Naval aviator over the Pacific during World War II, piloting Grumman Torpedo Bomber Fighters. He later earned a journalism degree from Denver University in 1948 and started out as a reporter for the Colorado Springs Free Press before moving to New York with United Press International in the early 1950s. He moved to the agency realm with Walker & Crenshaw and Frank Shea Associates focused on the aviation sector. He later joined Aviation Week before JWT PR.
He is survived by his wife of 40 years, Beverly Ann Simons, her daughter, Karen Jo Moyer Malpass; her daughter, Jonas Howell, and son, George Bowman Cooke. He was previously married and had two children who predeceased him -- Christine Merriitt and Claudia Sherwood.
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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