It has been eleven years since the passing of my parents, Dan and Ruth Edelman. It is fitting that they passed in the same year, 2013. They were inseparable in life, complementary in their skills, aligned in their goals of family, business and community. For this dynamic duo, there was no separation of the three facets of life.
My father was hard driving, demanding, well-informed and resilient. A paradigm Type-A personality, Dan was determined to get ahead. He was as competitive on the tennis court as he was in business. He loved sports, especially the Chicago Cubs and the Bears (his fraternity pal was Sid Luckman, legendary quarterback for the Bears, a lifetime friend). He was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Columbia University; his success in school was due to both brains and supreme effort, taking notes on his notes to prepare for exams. He loved his country and was proud of his four years of military service during World War II in psychological warfare and military intelligence.
Dan started Daniel J. Edelman, Inc. with four people in the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. He invented the media tour while at the Toni Home Permanent Company in 1948, sending six sets of identical twins around the U.S. to be interviewed by local media. He understood the power of celebrities in media relations, using Vincent Price for California Wines, George Hamilton for the Sole Leather Council and Phyllis George for Toni. He also recognized the possibility of entrepreneurs telling their own stories, including Orville Redenbacher of popcorn fame, Colonel Harland Sanders for KFC and Charles Lubin, founder of Sara Lee. Dan was proud of the case study on the Toni media tour written by Harvard Business School Professor and marketing guru Theodore Levitt.
Dan was an inveterate dreamer, believing that Edelman could become a global force in public relations. He established the first overseas office in the UK in 1965, followed by operations in Germany and France. Then came Asia, Dan’s true obsession, beginning in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, then Hong Kong in the mid-80s. The acquisition of Interasia in 1993 propelled Edelman to the top rank in China. Korea, India, Australia and a start-up in Japan followed soon thereafter. Canada and Latin America joined the Edelman roster via acquisition in the 1990s. When we rose to the top of the PR ranking in 2011, his admonition to the Edelman team, “It is great to be the largest firm, but we must always strive to be the best firm.”
Ruth was my father’s partner in building the company. She was out with him five nights a week, entertaining clients, going to charity events and building the brand. She was an astute judge of talent, spending quality time with senior Edelman team members, listening and advising them on family matters or business issues. She was a social force, walking boldly up to important figures, winning them over in five minutes, then introducing them to my father, whom she described as “the most brilliant man.” She ran her household as a tight ship, up early calling around to her friends on the events of the prior night, making sure the kids were fed and on the way to school, going on to do the charity work, supervising homework then preparing for the evening. It was a busy life of friendships with CEOs, influential politicians, sports stars and journalists. My mother courageously battled manic depression for 40 years. She lobbied in the U.S. Congress to raise funds for mental-health research and shared her condition with the public to end the stigma associated with mental illness and increase access to care.
My parents connected on the pursuit of excellence and in service to the community. The three kids (Renée, John and I) were expected to do well in school. We were also to excel in sports. I had a weightlifting coach at age 10 because my mother said that she could "blow me over." She rousted me out of bed promptly at 7 a.m. during the summer to oversee the circuit training for football, replete with a whistle and stopwatch. Competition among the siblings was encouraged and high achievement demanded. Touch football games on the lawn at our summer house in Charlevoix, along with morning sessions with neighborhood kids on the SRA learning plans are examples of life at the Edelmans. My parents devoted hours to charities in Chicago, including the Art Institute, Operation PUSH, Chicago Lyric Opera, Immigrant Service League and Rush Hospital.
Renée, John and I have done our best to keep the ethos of Edelman and Zeno as special institutions that partner with clients to grow their businesses while having a positive impact on society. We do this to maintain the tradition of excellence in creativity and performance. My three daughters, Margot, Tory and Amanda, understand the responsibility of being an Edelman, to put the interests of the company, its people and its communities, ahead of personal needs. But the Edelman legacy spans beyond our family and to the 6000+ employees across DJE– each and every one of them have made our history, achievements and all that we have yet to accomplish, possible. To the DJE team, I’m deeply proud and grateful.
I found this quote from George Bernard Shaw that is a fitting tribute to my parents. I have a copy now sitting on my father’s desk in the Edelman Museum in Chicago as a North Star for the people of DJE Inc.
“This is true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”
Richard Edelman is CEO.
