PRSA’s mishandling of the news of the sudden death of PRSA VP-PR Arthur Yann in 2013 shows why the Institute for PR should disassociate itself from the Society.

IPR, headed by Tina McCorkindale, a Seattle resident, has combined its research journal with the revived digital PR Journal of PRSA which had suspended publication. It had been edited by Prof. Donald Wright of Boston University.

Yann, 48, had a seizure Thursday, June 12, 2013 on the 8:35 p.m. Metro North to Fairfield, Conn., after attending the Silver Anvil Awards in New York. He was stricken before the train reached the 125th st. station. Two nurses tried resuscitation until an ambulance arrived. He was taken to Harlem Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Society leaders and staff head Bill Murray withheld the news of Yann’s death from the membership until Sunday night, apparently feeling it would put a damper on announcement of the Silver Anvil winners.

Murray Gave Brief, Late Announcement

Murray posted Sunday night on the Society website that “Our community joins me in mourning the sudden and unexpected death of our friend, co-worker, colleague and PRSA member Arthur Andrew Yann.” No other details were given. Metro North PR staff provided them to O’Dwyer’s. Few members saw the Sunday night Murray posting.

The death of Yann was a shocker to this reporter, who had battled with him for nearly five years. He had denounced us in numerous ways including charges we were “a writer of outright lies,” “a hacker,” “malicious,” and “guilty of downright hateful practices.”

There’s no doubt in our mind his death was at least partly due to the stress of his job. CEO Bill Murray said Yann had “one of the toughest jobs in PR—VP-PR for an organization representing more than 20,000 PR pros.”

What made the job even tougher was his assignment to discredit this writer and the O’Dwyer Co. He spread negative comments not only on the Society’s website and its publications but to six PR and J websites. They rejected his charges and denounced him.

The Society since 2014 has given up saying anything negative about the O’Dwyer Co., opting for a policy of silence.

PRSA Unmentioned at Funeral

There’s an indication, justified in our mind, that Yann’s wife, Amy Boughton Yann, mother of then three-year-old Sofia Claire, assigned some or maybe much blame to PRSA for the death of her husband.

No one representing the Society was allowed to speak at the services and PRSA was not even mentioned.

Sources covering the funeral, attended by 160, were struck by the fact that no one from the Society made remarks either at the funeral home or at the church.

The eulogy, given by fraternity brother John Redinger, did not mention the Society or that Yann enjoyed or loved his job or that he was grateful for an employer that paid him handsomely ($186,485 in 2011, a 25% raise, plus benefits and expenses).

The only mention of PR was a reference to Roberto Clemente, former star of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Redinger said that writing an obit for a PR person was like "pinch-hitting for Roberto Clemente."

Redinger was the only one who spoke.

This writer has attended numerous funerals of PR and other people and usually several people speak.

Yann Blasted O’Dwyer’s

Yann, in order to earn his salary, had to do noxious things for nearly five years that no doubt weighed heavily on him and of which his family was aware.

Searching "Yann” on the O’Dwyer website brings up 47 stories detailing his many attempts to discredit this writer. He placed negative comments not only on the Society website but on more than a half dozen others.

The Society website in October 2011, for instance, carried 3,100 words attacking this writer personally including 954 by Yann himself.

I was called a writer of "outright lies," "unethical," "a hacker," "a nuisance," "malicious" and guilty of "downright hateful tactics."

Yann became the "hit man" for the board and COO Bill Murray.