PR Figures Rinehart, Meek Died in 2016

Jonathan Rinehart, former journalist for Time and Newsweek, who had a career in investor relations and corporate takeover strategy, died in New York Aug. 30 at age 86.

A graduate of Yale University, Rinehart joined Eastern Airlines in the early 1950s where he became senior VP-PR. He started his own firm in 1974 and merged it with Mel Adams & Assocs. to form Adams & Rinehart. Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide acquired it in 1986 and renamed it Ogilvy Adams & Rinehart.

Jonathan Rinehart

After serving as chairman until 1994, Rinehart headed the New York office of Powell Tate, Washington, D.C., firm. In 1998 he joined Abernathy MacGregor in a consulting role.

The firm advised clients such as Seagram, AT&T, Chevron, American Brands, Gillette, BP and Salomon Brothers, investment firm that became part of Citigroup. Two prominent financial communications firms, Sard Verbinnen and Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher were founded by former employees of the Rinehart firm.

Meek Was Key Edelman Executive

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.

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.

John Martin Meek

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.

Meek joined Edelman in 1970 and became president of Edelman International.

PR 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.

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.

Glazer Counseled News Figures

George Glazer, who spent 27 years as chief broadcasting executive at New York’s Hill and Knowlton counseling CBS news personalities such as legendary anchor Walter Cronkite and “60 Minutes” founder and executive producer Don Hewitt, died of a heart attack Nov. 22 at his home in Palm Beach County, Florida. He was 86.

George Glazer (center) with Walter Cronkite (L) and Mike Wallace (R)

Cronkite once toasted Glazer as “the most trusted PR man in America” at an annual First Amendment Banquet hosted by the Radio Television News Directors Association and chaired by Glazer.

Glazer was instrumental in establishing the annual dinner for the group which is now known as the Radio Television Digital News Association.

Acknowledged by colleagues as a pioneer of contemporary media training and the use of satellite media tours and video news releases, Glazer advised luminaries such as Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, hotel mogul Bill Marriott, JetBlue founder David Neeleman, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney.

Other Obits

Other 2016 obituaries, which are in the listing of 56 types of stories at the top of odwyerpr.com, include Ron Rogers, CEO of The Rogers Group, Los Angeles; Ian Kerr, retired PR counselor and president emeritus, West/Fair Chapter of PRSA, and Hollywood publicist Murray Weissman.

These and earlier obits are in the "Obituary" story category on odwyerpr.com.