John Martin Meek, a former political speechwriter who spent nearly 40 years as a Washington, D.C. public affairs executive, died on March 11 at age 86.

John Martin MeekJohn Martin Meek

Meek was born in 1929 in Oklahoma’s Dust Bowl, the youngest of nine siblings. He joined the Navy in 1948 and served as a hospital corpsman in the Korean War before receiving a journalism degree in 1956 from the University of Oklahoma, where he was also editor of campus newspaper Oklahoma Daily.

Meek later worked as a newspaper reporter in Texas, and in 1958 received a master’s degree from Syracuse University, but left the field of journalism in 1961 to become press secretary to Senator Robert Kerr (D-OK) and later, Senator J. Howard Edmondson (D-OK). He served as press office manager for Robert F. Kennedy’s (D-NY) senate campaign, for whom he also wrote speeches, then spent four years as a speechwriter for President Lyndon B. Johnson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey. He also penned a speech for President John F. Kennedy regarding the space program. He held numerous positions at the Democratic National Committee, serving as congressional relations director, chairman special assistant and coordinator of the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Meek entered the private sector in 1970, when he was hired by Daniel J. Edelman to open and serve as general manager of Edelman Worldwide’s Washington, D.C. office. Meek helped grow the agency’s then-nascent Capitol Hill outpost and was later named President of Edelman International.

Public relations author Rene A. Henry, who headed Edelman's LA office when it opened in 1967, told O'Dwyer's that the PR powerhouse’s D.C. shop grew markedly under Meek’s direction.

“Before John, [Edelman] was a money losing revolving door,” Henry said. “He turned it into a profit machine.”

Meek left Edelman in 1982 to form his own Washington D.C.-based firm, Hartz Meek International, which he founded with fellow Oklahoman Jim Hartz, a former “Today Show” host. Meek later reincorporated that firm as HMI Inc. Communications.

Meek was a lecturing professor on journalism and marketing at American University; the University of Virginia, Charlottesville; and Pima Community College in Tucson, AZ, and was the author of three books, including “The Other Pearl Harbor: The Army Air Corps and its Heroes on Dec. 7, 1941,” which was published in 2011 by Tate Publishing & Enterprises.

Meek’s recognition in the PR industry includes five Silver Anvil Awards from The Public Relations Society of America.

Meek is survived by a brother, three children — Camilla, David and James — and five grandchildren. Son James Gordon Meek served as a Washington correspondent with the New York Daily News and is now an investigative producer at ABC News.