PR Legend Dan Edelman Passes Away

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jan 15, 2013 4:40PM

Dan Edelman, the public relations wizard whose passion and restless imagination helped build the world's largest independent public relations firm, passed away Tuesday. Mr. Edelman was 92 years old.

Under Mr. Edleman's stewardship, Edelman Public Relations created iconic characters as 9 Lives cat food mascot Morris the Cat, made Kentucky Fried Chicken's Colonel Harlan Sanders a household name, and was behind the Butterball Turkey hot line.

Edelman handled PR and communications for a who's who of corporations including Walmart, Sara Lee, Microsoft, Pfizer and Starbucks, and represented CBS in the 1980s when Gen. William Westmoreland sued the broadcast company for libel and have handled PR for heads of state, sports and movie stars and even entire countries. Edelman PR has offices in 65 cities around the globe and Mr. Edelman long resisted calls to take the company public.

Art Shay profiled Mr. Edelman in December 2011, calling him "one of my all-time greatest citizens of Chicago."