N.C. Advertising Hall of Fame

Fred D. Crisp Jr. (1991)
Billings Fuess Jr. (1995)
Jean Hodges (2001)
Harry M. Jacobs Jr. (199l)
Jim Johnston (1993)
Walter J. Klein (2007)
Gene Lewis (2002)
C. Knox Massey (1990)
Charles C. McKinney (1989)
Jim Mullen (2006)
Sheila Hale Ogle (1994)
Clifford A. Parish Jr. (1992)
Charles R. Price (1988)
Howard Rockett (2000)
Michael J. Silver (1990)
Edward Vick (1996)
Donald H. Williams (2004)
Michael Winslow (1999)



Fred D. Crisp, Jr. (1991)

Crisp, a native of Chatham County, graduated from Carolina in 1957. He began his career in advertising sales in 1957. From 1959-68, he worked in advertising sales at The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star in Norfolk, Va. He was advertising director at the Northern Virginia Sun in Arlington in 1968-69, when he became retail advertising manager at The News & Observer in Raleigh. There he became advertising director in 1976, director of sales and marketing in 1985, and vice president for sales and marketing in 1987. He was named associate publisher in 1996.

His national distinction and stature are a result of his numerous achievements in newspaper advertising, which include election to top positions in a number of regional and national associations. Crisp has been president of the International Newspaper Advertising and Marketing Executives and the Mid-Atlantic Newspaper Advertising and Marketing Executives. He also was president of the Triangle Advertising Federation and N.C. Governor of the American Advertising Federation.

His many honors include the coveted Silver Medal Award in 1979 from the Triangle Advertising Federation. In addition, three organizations have honored him with honorary life memberships: Distributive Education Clubs of America, International Newspaper Advertising and Marketing Executives, and Mid-Atlantic Newspaper Advertising and Marketing Executives.

Billings S. Fuess Jr. (1995)

With 40 years in advertising, Billings Fuess earned many of the field's most coveted awards, and his achievements have left an indelible mark in the minds of millions of Americans. Among them: the slogan, "Hershey's, the great American chocolate bar," Nationwide Insurance's "Blanket Protection" television campaign, lyrics to "Nationwide is on your side," and "The Power of the Printed Word" series for International Paper.

Fuess received his bachelor's degree in journalism from UNC in 1948 and went to work as an advertising manager, editorial cartoonist and feature writer at The Hackettstown (N.J.) Gazette. He landed his first copywriting job with Kenyon & Eckhardt, an ad agency in New York City in 1953. There he wrote television commercials for RCA Victor, Mercury and Lincoln.

He joined Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn seven years later, creating television commercials for Dodge, The New York Times (its first television advertising), Lucky Strike, Liberty Mutual and General Electric light bulbs. Ogilvy and Mather hired him in 1965, where he worked for 23 years as vice president and associate creative director. His clients included the CBS Television Network, Snickers and KitKat candy bars. He then founded Billings S. Fuess Advertising & Concepts in New Jersey, creating advertising for clients such as Prodigy, The Discovery Channel, Binney and Smith, Rodale Press and Research International.

Since 1961, Fuess has won six Clios, four American Marketing Association EFFIES, three ACE awards, the 1984 Grand Award from the International Film & Television Festival of New York, four Andys from the Advertising Club of New York and the Magazine Publishers of America's Steven E. Kelly award for creating International Paper's "Power of the Printed Word" series.

Jean Hodges (2001)

Jean Hodges is the founder of Hodges Associates Inc., an esteemed full-service advertising, marketing and public relations firm in Fayetteville.

Hodges has 40 years of business experience. She founded and presided over the Fayetteville Area Advertising Federation. She also served as chairman of the American Advertising Federation's East Region, and she is past district governor on the AAF National Board and Council of Governors.

In addition, Hodges is a former president of the Boys & Girls Club of America and a former vice president of the Association of the U.S. Army. She is past chairwoman of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke Foundation, and she has directed the N.C. Turkey Festival.

Hodges has served on the board of directors for several groups, including Partners in Education, the Regional Land Use Advisory and the Southeast Economic Development Board. She has also been a N.C. delegate to the White House Conference for Small Business and a delegate to the Governor's Conference for Small Business.

She has won numerous awards, including the American Advertising Federation Silver Medal and Legion of Excellence Award. She has been recognized as the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce's outstanding member and as Outstanding Woman Entrepreneur by Methodist College. She is also an Athena Award recipient.

Harry M. Jacobs Jr. (1991)

Jacobs attended East Carolina University and George Washington University before obtaining a degree from the Corcoran School of Art in 1952. After beginning his advertising career in 1952 at Bradham and Co. in Greensboro, the New Bern, N.C., native joined the South's largest advertising agency, Cargill, Wilson and Acree, in Richmond in 1959.

At Cargill, Jacobs became associate creative director in 1961 and moved to the Charlotte office. In 1969, he returned to Richmond and was named president of the entire company, a position he held until 1974.

In 1977, Jacobs joined the Martin Agency as president, becoming vice chairman in 1983 and chairman of the board in 1986. Under his leadership, the agency earned numerous national and international awards, including Adweek's Southeast Agency of the Year in 1986. That same year, Adweek and Advertising Age named the agency the "hottest in America."

In 1984, Adweek named him the leading creative director and top executive on its Southeast all-star creative team. Jacobs was named to the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame in 1986, its year of inception, and was honored among AdDay's Top 100 Creative People in 1972, 1975 and 1981. In 1972, Jacobs was named Richmond's Advertising Man of the Year, earning the American Advertising Federation's coveted Silver Medal. In 1989, he was featured in The Wall Street Journal's continuing ad series on the nation's most outstanding creative leaders.

Jacobs served on the school's Board of Visitors and the Virginia Commonwealth University Foundation board.

James J. Johnston (1993)

Johnston, born in Missouri in 1931, moved to North Carolina in 1962, where he joined Jack Howard's advertising agency as a junior partner, working with Charles "Chick" McKinney and Michael Silver. He was instrumental in developing the campaign that won the governor's race for longshot Democratic candidate Dan K. Moore.

His career then took him to Cleveland from 1964 to 1973, where he rose to president, chairman and chief executive officer of Griswold-Eshleman. During his tenure, the firm tripled in size and by 1972 was ranked the 31st largest advertising agency in the world. After the agency's board rejected a proposed move from Cleveland to North Carolina, Johnston left the firm and set up his own agency in Chapel Hill in 1976. His firm has earned more than 300 creative awards since then.

Johnston has been named three times as one of America's 100 top creative people and was cited in Ed Buxton's book, "Creative People at Work," as one of the 15 best creative directors of our time.

Walter J. Klein (2007)

Klein began his career in advertising as a staff member at The Charlotte Observer in 1946, following his service in World War II. Soon thereafter, Klein founded Walter J. Klein Co., which became one of the state's largest full-service advertising agencies.

Under Klein's direction, the company excelled at commercial production for some of America's most prominent industries and organizations during a pivotal time for broadcast media. The company produced the first commercial that was shown in Charlotte, broadcast of WBTV the night before the station officially signed on. Klein remained an influential figure in the worlds of advertising, public relations and filmmaking for the duration of his career.

Gene Lewis (2002)

Lewis, of Rocky Mount, has served as chairman of Lewis Advertising Inc., founded in 1969. The agency, with annual billings of more than $45 million, has one of the highest client retention rates of any agency in the nation. Clients have included Sprint, Hardee's Food Systems, Kerr Drug and the N.C. State Fair.

C. Knox Massey (1990)

Beginning in 1930, when his small, local agency began an advertising campaign for BC Remedy Company, a campaign that became national, Massey was an exemplar of advertising skills and a goodwill ambassador for the industry and Carolina, where he was a member of the Board of Trustees for 20 years.

At 27, Massey began a one-station radio campaign for BC on WPTF in Raleigh. Over the years, it grew to a 600-station campaign throughout the United States. After 42 years in the advertising-agency business, Massey retired in 1967, terminating the company he had started. He is still credited with having placed more advertising dollars for a similar Southern product than any other advertising person of that era.

A member of the UNC class of 1925, Massey, with his colleagues at C. Knox Massey & Associates Inc., served without compensation in directing the advertising and promotional efforts for the Good Health Campaign, eventually resulting in the N.C. General Assembly appropriating sufficient funds to change the UNC School of Medicine from a two-year to a four-year school and build the first unit of N.C. Memorial Hospital, now the centerpiece of the complex of structures renamed UNC Hospitals.

In 1941, Massey endowed a major scholarship program in the University and subsequently the Massey Awards program to recognize outstanding service by University employees.

In 1957 he received the School of Medicine's Distinguished Service Award, in 1979 the Distinguished Service Medal of the UNC Alumni Association, in 1981 the Distinguished Alumnus Award and in 1988 the William Richardson Davie Award.

Charles C. McKinney (1989)

Charles C. McKinney is former chairman and chief executive officer of McKinney & Silver advertising agency in Raleigh. A native of Spruce Pine, N.C., he was educated at the University of Tennessee and the UNC School of Business Administration.

McKinney began his advertising career in Raleigh in 1957. In 1968, at the age of 36, he founded his own company, which became one of the largest agencies in the Southeast.

Although his professional background covers both the business and creative side of agency operations, he is best known in national creative circles and received numerous major awards from various creative competitions.

Jim Mullen (2006)

Jim Mullen moved to Chapel Hill and the university in 1959 to establish the advertising sequence in the school. Four students took the sequence that year. Today, the advertising sequence is one of the school’s largest.

Mullen’s colleagues credit him with growth of the school’s prominence in advertising. He retired in 1986. A veteran of World War II, Mullen holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree from Harvard University.

Sheila Hale Ogle (1994)

Sheila Ogle, one of the most respected professionals in advertising in North Carolina and beyond, founded Media Research, Planning and Placement Services in Raleigh. The independent company provides a full range of media services for advertising agencies and individual advertisers.

Her advertising career, which has spanned more than 30 years, started in 1962 with Capitol Broadcasting Company, where she first served as assistant to the women's director and then assistant to Jesse Helms while he was editorial director for WRAL Television. In 1967, she joined the J.T. Howard Advertising Agency, now known as Howard, Merrell & Partners, where she remained until her retirement in 1987.

"Her dedication to the advertising community and student involvement has been an integral part of her career," said Fred Crisp Jr., associate publisher of The News & Observer. Ogle started Student Career Day during her term as president of the Triangle Advertising Federation (TAF) to give college seniors in advertising the opportunity to work for a day in local advertising companies.

In addition, Ogle was instrumental in organizing several other student and professional groups in the Triangle, including the Student Advertising Club at UNC, Triangle AD2, Triangle Ad Council and Capital Area Media Professionals. The Sheila Hale Ogle scholarship is awarded annually by AD2 to a promising Wake County high school senior interested in a career in advertising.

She received the American Advertising Federation/Triangle Advertising Federation Silver Medal Award in 1984. This award is given to an advertising professional in recognition of outstanding contributions to the field and for furthering the industry's standards, creative excellence and responsibility in areas of social concern.

Clifford Parish (1992)

Parish joined Burroughs Wellcome Co. in 1948 after graduating from the University of Missouri with a degree in pharmacy and studying advertising at New York University. He rose to the position of advertising manager in 1960, and during his tenure, Burroughs Wellcome grew from a small pharmaceutical company with annual sales under $50 million to a billion-dollar industry giant.

"I cannot think of another client-side advertising person who has had as great an impact on his profession and his industry," wrote Robert Lauterborn, James L. Knight Professor of Advertising at the school. "His personal crusade to get the array of trade magazines serving the health care field audited comparably, for example, led the industry. He put ethics into ethical drug advertising, improved the creative work and helped make the benefits of important products available to more people."

Parish became Burroughs Wellcome's director of advertising and product promotion in 1983, a post he held until his retirement in 1987. Parish served on more than a dozen boards, councils and associations, among them the American Academy of Physician Assistants Foundation, the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation, the Industry Task Force of the American Academy of Dermatology, several pharmaceutical advisory councils, the Pharmaceutical Advertising Council, the American Medical Writers Association and the Direct Marketing Association.

In addition, he was chairman of the American Society of Hematology Corporate Advisory Council and chairman of the board of directors of the National Osteopathic Foundation. In 1986, the University of Missouri School of Pharmacy named Parish its distinguished alumnus of the year.

Charles Price (1988)

Charles Price, a native of Asheville, N.C., founded Price/McNabb advertising agency in 1967 after working in advertising and promotion for Olin Mathieson Chemical Corp. His account-management experience has covered a wide range of products, including automotive, hosiery, furniture, tourism and finance.

His Asheville-based firm expanded to Raleigh, Charlotte and Columbia, S.C., gaining wide recognition throughout the Southeast.

Price served as chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies' Carolinas Council, and he helped found and served as president of the Western North Carolina Ad Club.

Howard Rockett (2000)

Howard Rockett is a widely recognized expert on corporate strategic positioning and was a significant factor in the success of three major Southeastern advertising agencies.

Rockett began his 35-year career in the advertising agency business as a copywriter after his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania in 1959. He worked as an account executive at the original Cargill, Wilson & Acree in Richmond, Va., the largest agency in the South in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1969, he joined Chick McKinney and Mike Silver in Raleigh as the original partners in McKinney, Silver & Rockett.

Over the next few years, MS&R earned recognition as one of the dominant forces in the world of regional agencies for its work for major clients such as Piedmont Airlines, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Slim Jims, Barnett Banks of Florida, NationsBank and North Carolina Tourism. After 14 years, Rockett retired and sold his interest in 1983 to Chick McKinney.

It wasn't long before Rockett missed the creative energy of the agency business, however. Two years later he made the decision to start another agency and focus his personal energies more on the creative side of the business. He chose Scott Burkhead as his partner and in late 1985 founded what is now Rockett, Burkhead & Winslow.

Rockett is known internationally for his creativity, having been recognized in scores of advertising and communications competitions worldwide. He is the architect of Dynamic Branding ™, a proprietary method of differentiating client company brands in an evolving environment. He also developed a unique theory of positioning called the Inner-Outer Circle that increases the effectiveness of Dynamic Branding ™.

He has served on the National Advertising Review Board, the Carolinas Region of the National Association of Advertising Agencies and has been a North Carolina State finalist for INC Magazine Entrepreneur of the Year.

Michael J. Silver (1990)

Michael J. Silver was a partner in the advertising agency of McKinney & Silver in Raleigh. He had more than 30 years of experience in the advertising business in North Carolina, primarily in account services, where he served as the bridge between client and agency.

He came to North Carolina from New York in the late 1940s to get an engineering degree at N.C. State University. He transferred to Carolina and in 1952 earned a degree in radio, television and motion pictures.

Silver worked in broadcasting in the Triangle for several years. One of his early jobs was at a UHF station that became Channel 28, the first television station in the Triangle.

In 1957, he joined the Howard Agency, where he served as liaison for client services. There he met Charles McKinney, and in 1969, the two men left to start their own agency, McKinney & Silver. McKinney was in charge of creative services, and Silver was in charge of account and client services.

Among the clients Silver was responsible for are Atlantic State Bankcard, Carolina Power & Light Co., the state of South Carolina for national travel advertising, South Carolina National Band and the N.C. Division of Tourism. He also worked for several political candidates, including Gov. Dan K. Moore.

Silver was one of the youngest advertising people to win the Printers Ink Silver Medal, given to an individual for contributions to the advertising business. He also won the Charles Parker Travel Award for outstanding service to the travel industry.

Ed Vick (1996)

Philadelphia native Ed Vick graduated from UNC in 1966 with a journalism degree. After two years as a U. S. Navy officer in Vietnam, he returned to the United States and earned his master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University.

Vick began his career as a junior account executive at Benton and Bowles in New York City. He moved on to become a senior vice president of Ogilvy & Mather, president and chief operating officer of Ammirati & Puris, and president and chief executive officer of Levine, Huntley, Vick and Beaver.

In 1992, Vick joined Young & Rubicam Inc. as president and chief executive officer of Landor Associates, a San Francisco-based consultancy and design firm. He was president and chief executive officer of Young & Rubicam New York from 1994 until January 1996, when he became chairman and chief executive officer of Young & Rubicam Advertising Worldwide.

Vick has served on the board of directors of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the school's Board of Visitors and the board of directors of the Advertising Education Foundation.

Donald H. Williams (2004)

Don Williams, a native of Richmond, Va., co-founded and became executive vice president and creative director for Lewis Advertising in Rocky Mount, N.C., in 1969. As creative director, he won more than 200 local, regional and national awards.

Williams earned his bachelor's degree in American civilization from Lake Forest College in Illinois. After serving in the Army, he began his advertising career in 1966 as a copywriter in Norfolk, Va. He joined a Richmond ad agency two years later before moving to Rocky Mount to help launch Lewis Advertising.

A member of the American Advertising Federation (AAF), Williams has served as president of the Triangle Ad Club and on the AAF national board of directors and national executive committee.

As a  member of AAF, Williams has won two Silver Medal Awards for outstanding contributions to the advertising industry. The awards recognized his work in furthering the industry's standards, creative excellence and responsiblity in areas of social concern.

Williams has served as chairman of the Rocky Mount Area Chamber of Commerce, and as vice chairman of business development. He is a past officer and board member of the Triangle Chapter of the Business Marketing Association.

Michael Winslow (1999)

Michael Winslow, executive vice president and creative director of Rockett, Burkhead & Winslow in Raleigh, has long emphasized the importance of making a genuine connection with customers.

"Our product reflects a commitment to communicating well-developed ideas," he has said of his campaigns. "Advertising, to be really effective, must be honest, and it must offer people something that is relevant to their life — something they will react to emotionally or intellectually."

Winslow was born in Hertford, N.C., and graduated from of East Carolina University in 1970. Upon completing school, he was hired as art director for the Raleigh firm of McKinney, Silver & Rockett. For the next 20 years, he helped the company rise to national prominence.

His widely noted work at the firm included the North Carolina state tourism account, a campaign that won the prestigious Stephen Kelly Award for the best magazine advertising as selected by the Magazine Publishers Association of America. The Kelly went to Winslow and Jan Karon.

Other accounts that helped make Winslow one of the most well-known art directors in the country included Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Piedmont Airlines, Benihana, Volvo Trucks, Glaxo Wellcome and Duke University Medical Center. He was selected as one of the top 100 people in advertising by Advertising Age magazine and named to Ad Week's top creative team in the Southeast, as art director. In 1990, Winslow moved to what was then Rockett, Burkhead & Lewis as co-executive creative director. In 1992, he became a partner.

Stephen Bassett, a writer who worked with Winslow for eight years, calls Winslow "a true advertising leader who inspires — not by rhetoric or posturing, but by example — to be a better advertising person, and for that matter, a better person."