RECEIVED CITY COUNCIL DlViSiUr.
2013 JAN 31 PM 2=56
TRIBUTE TO DANIEL J. EDELMAN
OFFICE OF THE
WHEREAS, In His Infinite Wisdom, Almighty God lia£$pjft<f&e|[ift$l rest at the age of 92 to Daniel J. Edelman, a public relations pioneer and chairman of the international public relations company that bears his name; and
WHEREAS, Daniel J. Edelman started life in New York City on July 3, 1920. He evinced an early interest in writing. When he was 11, he started a community newspaper with a friend. He was sports editor of his high school newspaper and, in 1940, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from New York's Columbia College, earning a Master's degree from Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism the following year; and
WHEREAS, Daniel J. Edelman was briefly employed as sports editor and reporter for a newspaper in Poughkecpsie, New York before being drafted into the Army during World War IT. He was assigned to the Intelligence Unit of the 100th Infantry Division, as a part of the Division's PR operation. While sailing on the troop transport to the European Theatre, he produced a daily newspaper for his fellow soldiers, reporting on the latest war developments gleaned from listening to the ship's radio. When he arrived, he was posted to the Fifth Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company, a psychological warfare unit, and ordered to join the 12th U.S. Army Group in Verdun where his job was to write an analysis of German propaganda. He earned a commission in Germany and finished his tour of duty in Berlin with the U.S. Army Infonnation Control Division; and
WHEREAS, Daniel J. Edelman returned to New York City where he took a job as news writer for the Columbia Broadcasting System. He then got his start in the public relations business when he was employed as a publicist for Musi craft Records that represented many of that era's great recording artists such as Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Artie Shaw, Dizzy Gillespie and Mel Tonne; and
WHEREAS, It was Edelman's contact with Tonne's radio show sponsor Tom, a home hair care manufacturer, that gave him his real break as a commercial publicist. In 1947, he was transferred to this cily to become Public Relations Director for that company. In 1952, he started his own public relations firm in a small office in the Merchandise Mart with Toni as his first client, followed by Sara Lec. With these major companies as clients, he soon garnered a reputation as a master marketer; and
WHEREAS, Through novel promotions and innovative publicity concepts, Daniel J. Edelman broke ground with what is today accepted as standard practice in his profession. He is credited with creating the media tour, celebrity endorsements and the consumer hotline. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he opened offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., in the Canadian cities of Montreal and Toronto, and overseas in Frankfurt, Dublin, Milan, Madrid and
other European cities. In the 1980s, he added offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sydney and Singapore. In the 1990s, he started several in Latin America, including an office in Mexico City, Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires.
WHEREAS, Daniel J. Edelman has built the world's largest public relations finn, with 66 offices and more than 4,500 employees throughout the world. His civic accomplishments are no less impressive. His many causes included the Global Business Coaliliou on HIV/AIDS and the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention. He has served on the Board of the Committee for Economic Growth of Israel, the Illinois Children's Hospital and Aid Society, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Northwestern University Music School and Save the Children Foundation as well as being a former Chair of the University of Chicago Library Board; and
WHEREAS, Daniel J. Edelman has received numerous public accolades including the Junior Achievement award from the Chicago Business Hall of Fame, the University of Illinois-Chicago Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame and the Arthur Page Society Hall of Fame. He was the recipient of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism's first annual Dean's Medal for Professional Achievement and Public Service, the very first award from the China Public Relations Association, the Publicity Club of Chicago's first Lifetime Achievement Award and the Gold Anvil Award from Public Relations Society of America, the highest honor accorded in the public relations field, as well as the "Communicator of the Year Award" from the Jewish United Fund and was named a member of the Hall of Fame of the International Communications Consultancy Organization; and
WHEREAS, Daniel J. Edelman leaves behind, to celebrate a life well spent, Ruth Ann Rozumoff Edelman, his wife of 59 years; bis son Richard; a daughter, Renee; a son John; and three granddaughters, Margot, Tory and Amanda Edelman, now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED That we, the Mayor and members of the City Council gathered together this 13llDay of February, 2013 AD, do hereby express our sincere sorrow at the passing of Daniel J. Edelman, a giant of the Chicago business community, and extend our deepest condolences to his illustrious family and the many persons whose lives he touched.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED That a suitable copy of this resolution be prepared and given to the family of Daniel J. Edelman.
MICHELE SMITH Alderman - 43rd Ward