The Board of Trustees of the Institute for Public Relations has named its retiring President and CEO John W. (Jack) Felton to receive the 2004 Alexander Hamilton Medal for lifetime achievement in professional public relations.
The prestigious award will be presented at the Institute’s 43rd Annual Distinguished Lecture & Awards Dinner. The event, sponsored in part by Lawrence Ragan Communications, Inc. and Biz360, will take place Wednesday, November 10, 2004, at the historic Union League Club in New York City, beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Felton has led the Institute since 1995 and also served as the Freedom Forum Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications. A past national president of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), Jack retired in 1995 as Vice President – Corporate Communications for the McCormick Spice Company in Baltimore.
A native of Roanoke, VA, Felton was graduated from the University of Michigan in 1951 and received his Master’s there in 1952. During the Korean War he served as a Public Information Officer with the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command. He joined Interstate Brands as Director of Public Relations and Public Affairs in 1969, after a variety of assignments with U.S. Steel in San Francisco, Chicago, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. Among the many honors Felton has received are PRSA’s Gold Anvil Award, the PR NEWS “Outstanding Professional of the Year,” and the Arthur W. Page Society’s Distinguished Service Award.
The Institute also announced winners of the nation’s two highest awards in public relations research, which will also be presented November 10. The 2004 winner of the Institute’s Pathfinder Award is Dr. Krishnamurthy Sriramesh, Associate Professor at the School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The $2,000 award recognizes outstanding contributions to scholarly research and the public relations body of knowledge.
The second award winner is Marcia L. Watson, a graduate student from the University of South Florida, Tampa, who will receive $2,000 for the Northwestern Mutual Best Master’s Thesis Award.
A noted authority on the international practice of public relations, Dr. Sriramesh is author of two recent books – The Global Public Relations Handbook and Public Relations in Asia: An Anthology – plus years of other significant research. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Maryland and other graduate studies at Purdue University, where he served as Assistant Professor. Later, he was an Associate Professor at the University of Florida before moving to his current assignment in Singapore.
Watson’s thesis is entitled “Organizational Uncertainty Management: Developing a Framework for Public Relations Practitioner Involvement.” The study explored the different ways uncertainty affects the management of communications with employees. Her thesis advisor at the University of South Florida, Dr. Derina Holtzhausen, will also receive an award of $1,000. Watson is now a Ph.D. student in the School of Communication at the University of Miami.
John D. Graham, Chairman and CEO of Fleishman-Hillard, will be the evening’s featured speaker with an address entitled “Thirty Years in the Same Job, and What Do I Know?” Tickets and tables for the event can be purchased by calling the Institute at 352-392-0280, or by visiting the website, instituteforpr.org. Tickets are $300 each, or $3,000 for a table of 10, and include cocktail reception, dinner and lecture. A portion of the ticket price is tax deductible.
The Institute for Public Relations is an independent foundation dedicated to the science beneath the art of public relations. The organization exists to build and document the intellectual foundations of public relations, and to mainstream this knowledge by making it available and useful to practitioners, educators, researchers and the corporate and institutional clients they serve.
Northwestern Mutual, long-time sponsor of the Best Master’s Thesis Award, is the nation’s largest provider of individual life insurance and consistently the most admired company in its field. More information is available at www.northwesternmutual.com.
Biz360 is the industry leader in technology-based analytic services for managing global reputations and brands. Its award-winning market intelligence application, Market360®, continuously analyzes over 50,000 sources of print, online and broadcast news content from 16 content service providers covering four major world regions. For more information, www.biz360.com.
Lawrence Ragan Communications, Inc., provides a one-stop source of best practices and training products for the communication profession. Through its world-renowned newsletters, conferences, research reports and guides, Ragan Communications, Inc., delivers practical advice, real-world solutions and field-tested strategies for today’s corporate communicator. The company can be reached at www.ragan.com
Photo of Mr. Felton available on request.
