James L. Tolley

Tolley_James-LSCHRANZ LECTURER 1988

James L. Tolley worked as vice president of public affairs for Chrysler Corporation where he was chairman of the national commission to restore the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, which eventually raised $456 million. He also served as Director of Public Relations for GM’s Chevrolet Motor Division beginning in 1975 when it was the largest manufacturer and distributor of motor vehicles in the world. Tolley is an active member of PRSA and IPRA. He is accredited and the recipient of the PRSA’s prestigious Silver Anvil Award for the introduction of the fuel-efficient Chevette. Tolley served on the board of the Interlochen Center for the Arts and the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. He was named Public Relations Professional of the Year” in 1985 by the readers of PR News for his work at Chrysler.Currently, Tolley is the Owner of a corporate public and government relations consulting firm in Sarasota, since 1988 with such clients as GE, Dayton-Hudson, Deloitte & Touche and Chrysler. Tolley received his bachelor’s degree from Lafyette College in Pennsylvania and earned his masters degree from Clark University in Massachusetts. Tolley served two years in the military after he received his master’s degree.

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David W. Ferguson

Ferguson_David-WSCHRANZ LECTURER 1987

David Ferguson is the former senior consultant at Hill and Knowlton, Inc., of Chicago. Ferguson served as the United States Steel public affairs manager. He is the former president of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and served as co-chairman of PRSA’s Educational Affairs committee. Ferguson was also a member of the Ball State University Public Relations Professional Liaison Committee. He served as vice chairman of the Illinois Atomic Energy Commission, vice chairman of the Business Advisory Council of Chicago State University, President of the Union League of Chicago, on the board of Junior Achievement of Chicago, on the board of trustees for Roosevelt University and on the national public relations advisory committee for the American Red Cross.

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Denny Griswold

Griswold_DennySCHRANZ LECTURER 1986

Denny Griswold was the founder and editor of Public Relations News, the world’s first public relations newsletter, for which she was listed in the Gusiness Book of World Records. Before founding Public Relations News, Griswold served as a radio commentator for the Mutual Broadcasting Co., a script writer for NBC, on the editorial staff for Business Week and was managing editor of Forbes magazine. She served on the boards of the USO, New York World’s Fair, International Center of New York, Public Relations Society of America and the Newsletter Association. Griswold has received 134 awards and honors for community and public relations activities. Griswold graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from Hunter College and received a master’s degree from Radcliff College. Griswold died in 2001 at the age of 92.

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Kerryn King

King_KerrynSCHRANZ LECTURER 1985

Kerryn King’s last professional career was as a senior consultant with Hill and Knowlton, an international public relations firm. He spent 10 years with Hill and Knowlton in New York, gaining the position as senior vice president in 1952. At the time of his death, King was also the president of the Foundation for Public Relations Research and Education. King was also a past president of the Public Relations Society of America in 1979. King worked as a senior vice president in marketing of Texaco Inc. He first began working as a member of the board of directors for Caltex Petroleum Corporation in 1961.He has served on boards for the Metropolitan Opera Association, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and the Eye Bank for Sight Restoration. King graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1939 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Journalism.  King died in 1986 after fighting a long-term battle with cancer.

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Chester Burger

Burger_ChesterSCHRANZ LECTURER 1983

Currently serving as an advisor to the Secretary of the Air Force Office of Public Affairs, Chester Burger has had a long career in the television and public relations industry. Burger founded and served as president of the nation’s first communications management consulting firm, Chester Burger & Co. Clients included Sears Roebuck, American Cancer Society, Communications Satellite Corporation, Occidental Petroleum Corporation and Texas Instruments. He retired from Chester Burger & Co in 1988.  Prior to establishing Chester Burger & Co, Burger served as President of Communications Counselors, Inc beginning in 1955. It was in this position that Burger took the client AT&T, which he counseled until his retirement 33 years later. During the Civil Rights Movement, Burger was an officer and member of the Board of Trustees of the National Urban League. Before his successful public relations career, Burger pursued the study of television. He began his career as a page boy for the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1941. In 1946, he became the nation’s first television news reporter. Burger worked for CBS as a visualizer, following his work with the military.  Burger was awarded Public Relations Society of America’s highest honor, the Gold Anvil, in 1987. The Counselor’s Academy named him “The Counselors’ Counselor” and made him their first Life Member. He has also been awarded the Drew Middleton Public Affairs Award for Distinguished Service by the Marine Corps.

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Philip Lesly

Lesly_PhilipSCHRANZ LECTURER 1982

Philip Lesly, president of The Philip Lesly Company, Chicago, until his death in 1997, was a leading authority on public relations and a leading practitioner. Before going to college, having attracted attention as organizer and editor of the country’s only daily high school newspaper, he joined the editorial staff of the Chicago Herald and Examiner. Two years later, at eighteen, he was awarded a scholarship to Northwestern University, from which he was graduated magna cum laude and possessor of a Phi Beta Kappa key. Lesly entered professional public relations work immediately after college and two years later became vice-president of one of the country’s larger counseling firms. He has received the Gold Anvil award of the Public Relations Society of America. The Philip Lesly Company now concentrates on counsel and major creative contributions to major clients. It formerly was one of the largest full-service firms, with multiple offices in the United States and abroad. His first book, which was a milestone in the field, was Public Relations: Principles and Procedures. Next he published Public Relations in Action, a volume’s predecessor, quickly became the most widely used volume on the subject throughout the world. His books The People Factor, How We Discommunicate, Overcoming Opposition and Bonanzas and Fool’s Gold have been widely quoted.

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Dorothy Gregg

Gregg_Dorothy-GSCHRANZ LECTURER 1981

Dr. Dorothy E. Gregg, APR, served as senior consultant of Research and Forecasts, Inc. and to the Ruder, Finn and Rotman public relations firm as vice president of communications at Celanese Corporation for eight years. Prior to joining Celanese, she was assistant to the director of public relations at U.S. Steel Corporation, a pioneering position she held for 16 years.

Gregg, who passed away in 1997, received the American Advertising Federation’s National Advertising Woman of the Year Award in 1968. She served as president of the New York Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and treasurer of the National Council of Women of the United States.

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Douglas Hearle

Hearle_DouglasSCHRANZ LECTURER 1980

Douglas G. Hearle has been active in communications education and training. He has served as an adjunct professor at Iona College, Fordham University and the College of New Rochelle and has been a Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Texas, Ball State University and the University of Jakarta in Indonesia. He served for six years as a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at the University of Connecticut and on the Board of Trustees of the College of New Rochelle.  He was also the Vice President of the Board of Education in his home community of Pelham, NY.  Mr. Hearle is the former President and CEO of Carl Byoir & Associates and the former Vice Chairman of Hill and Knowlton Inc., where he ran both the Publicity and Marketing Division and the International Division.  Prior to joining Hill and Knowlton, Mr. Hearle operated his own firm and served as a senior consultant to Fleishman Hillard.  He is still widely regarded as one of the country’s leading authorities on litigation support and crisis communications.   Mr. Hearle holds an MBA in Organizational Behavior.

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Edward Block

Block_EdwardSCHRANZ LECTURER 1979

Edward M. Block was cited by PR Week as one of the 100 Most Influential Public Relations People of the 20th Century.  In 1997, Mr. Block was awarded the Gold Anvil – the highest recognition conferred by the 18,000-member Public Relations Society of America.  In 1993, he received both the Lifetime Achievement Award from Inside PR and the Hall of Fame Award of the Arthur W. Page Society.

From 1988 until 1996, he was President of the Block, MacDonald Group, Inc. – consultants to a number of multinational corporations.  PR News chose him as Public Relations Professional of the Year in 1980. Mr. Block served as Senior Vice President – Public Relations, Advertising and Employee Information for the AT&T Corporation for 12 years until his retirement in 1986.  He led corporate communications during AT&T’s historic divestiture of the Bell Telephone Companies and its expansion into international markets.  In the six years leading up to his retirement, Mr. Block also held the additional post of Assistant to the Chairman of the Board and was a member of the Office of the Chairman.  He twice received the Blue Ribbon Award from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in 1961 and 1962.  He has also been the recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Award, presented by the Texas Manufacturers’ Association. Business Week named Block as one of the top Ten Names in Corporate PR. Mr. Block attended the University of Notre Dame and Dartmouth College. He earned his journalism degree at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas, where he also received an honorary doctorate.

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