N.C. Public Relations Hall of Fame

Frank J. Allston (1998)
Don Bishop (1997)
Roberta Bowman (2007)
J. Kenneth Clark (1990)
H.C. Cranford Jr. (1989)
Joe S. Epley (1991)
Ken Eudy (2002)
Joyce Fitzpatrick (2000)
John Harden (1988)
Bill Hensley (1997)
C.X. Larrabee (1992)
Hugh M. Morton (1990)
Max Muhleman (1996)
Edward L. Rankin Jr. (1989)
Carol Reuss (1996)
H. Zane Robbins (1994)
Merrill Rose (1999)
J. Kenneth Sanford (1995)
Julian W. Scheer (1991)
H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler (2004)
Nancy Neal Young (1999)

 

Frank J. Allston (1998)

Retired Rear Adm. Frank J. Allston, who was born in New Bern, N.C., in 1930, was an associate editor of The Daily Tar Heel and chairman of the publications board while studying at Carolina. He graduated from the School of Journalism in 1952 and immediately reported to the U.S. Navy Reserve Officer Candidate School. He reported on active duty during the Korean War.

Allston began his public relations career at General Electric in 1954 and then moved to Bunker Ramo Corp. as director of corporate communications in 1969. In 1972, he became director of financial communications for IC Industries Inc. in Chicago. In 1987, he became vice president of corporate affairs for Illinois Central Railroad, from which he retired in 1989.

Throughout his career, Allston remained active in the Naval Reserve, rising to rear admiral in 1978. When he retired in 1985, he was the senior active Naval Reservist. He received the Navy Meritorious Service Medal in 1977 and the Legion of Merit in 1985.

Much of Allston's Naval Reserve work involved public relations activities. He was awarded two commendations for the more than 215 presentations he made with the Chief of Naval Operations Sea Power Presentation Team, which informed civilian audiences about the role of a strong Navy in a democratic society.

Allston earned his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1988. He also authored two books: "Con-glom-er-ate," a history of the diversification of the Illinois Central railroad into a successful, multinational corporation under William B. Johnson, and "Ready for Sea," the bicentennial history of the U.S. Naval Supply Corps.

Don Bishop (1997)

Don Bishop's career in public relations spanned half a century. He grew up in New Bern, N.C., and received a bachelor's degree from UNC in 1941. Bishop died in 1995 at age 76.

Bishop was a former editor of The Daily Tarheel. After college, Bishop worked for newspapers in New Bern and Winston-Salem and was a columnist for several newspapers in New York City. He received his master's degree from the Columbia University School of Journalism in 1947.

He was a public relations specialist for NBC News in New York for 11 years and helped orchestrate the coverage of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and the national political conventions of 1952 and 1956. He also wrote a weekly article about North Carolinians in New York for leading North Carolina newspapers. In 1958, he joined Broadway producer and press agent Arthur Cantor as vice president of Advance Public Relations, publicizing television programs sponsored by major corporations. In 1963, he joined the public affairs staff of the U.S. Department of Commerce, working for Secretary Luther Hodges, the former governor of North Carolina. In 1993, Bishop retired from the Department, ending 35 years of civil and military service.

Roberta Bowman (2007)

Bowman has served as the vice president for sustainability and community affairs at Duke Energy Corp., following years of service to the company in the areas of corporate communication, reputation and brand management, public policy, issues management, philanthropy and government relations. Bowman also has served as president of the Duke Energy Foundation, which makes approximately $20 million in grants annually. 

J. Kenneth Clark (1990)

Ken Clark, a 1957 graduate of the UNC School of Journalism and a former reporter and editorial writer for The Charlotte Observer, has gained international respect as a leader in the public relations profession.

Clark headed public relations activities at such companies as Monsanto, NCNB Corporation, Mars Inc. and Duke Power, where his programs were recognized for their innovative use of communications management, research and techniques.

Clark was one of the first individuals to be accredited by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). He is a past PRSA national treasurer and director and  has held numerous other national and regional positions in PRSA and other professional societies.

A strong supporter of public relations education, he is a former vice president and trustee of the Institute of Public Relations Research and Education, a national foundation devoted to furthering knowledge in public relations.

Clark has held leadership roles in several regional and national fund-raising drives, including co-chairing the Walter Spearman Distinguished Professorship Fund Drive at UNC.

H.C. Cranford Jr. (1989)

H.C. Cranford Jr. of Durham was one of the state's first corporate public relations officers. He retired in 1985 as a vice president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina after a 39-year career in public relations, 36 of them with BCBS and its antecedent, Hospital Care Association of Durham. He joined HCA as its first public relations director in 1949 after three years as public relations director and executive director of the N.C. Good Health Association.

He served on numerous statewide health commissions and national BCBS public relations task forces. A leader in public relations, he was a charter member and past president of the N.C. chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

Since its inception in 1981, he has been public relations chairman and a member of the executive committee for the Durham, City of Medicine, USA program, which is dedicated to changing Durham's image to reflect the city's current healthcare-based economy. In 1988 he founded the annual Durham City of Medicine Awards, a national program that gives three $5,000 prizes for distinguished achievement in medicine in the public interest.

He attended UNC, where he was editor of Carolina Magazine and worked in the news bureau. Before enrolling at Carolina, he was a staff reporter for the Durham Sun for one year. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps in the Pacific for two years during World War II.

Joe S. Epley (1991)

Epley is a native of Forest City, N.C., and was educated at U.S. Army schools and at Charlotte College, now the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

In 1968, he founded Epley Associates Inc., which has grown into one of the largest public relations firms in the southern United States.

His honors include five presidential citations for leadership from the PRSA from 1986 through 1990, and the 1981 Infinity Award from the Charlotte Public Relations Society.

Epley's importance in the development of public relations includes his role as founding member of the Worldcom Group, an international network of independent public relations firms organized in 1988. He also served as vice president from 1986 to 1988 for IPR-North America, a group of 28 independent public relations firms in the United States that were members of the worldwide International Public Relations Group of Companies.

In addition, he has served in a number of capacities for PRSA, including treasurer in 1989. He also was president of the national association.

Epley also played a pivotal role in the development of the Charlotte chapter of PRSA as a founding board member and president. He served in all officer ranks in the Charlotte Public Relations Society.

Epley wrote two professional monographs for the Counselors Academy. He also served as peer reviewer for two professional books: "Strategic Public Relations Counseling" and "When You Are the Headline."

Ken Eudy (2002)

Eudy, of Raliegh, founded Capital Strategies, regarded by many as one of the best public relations firms in the state, particularly in political public relations. The firm, launched in 1994, quickly grew under Eudy's leadership to include offices in Raleigh and Washington, D.C.

Eudy graduated from the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 1975. He is a former journalist with The Charlotte Observer and has been named one of the top 20 most influential lobbyists in North Carolina. In 1997-1998, Eudy was executive director of the N.C. Democratic Party. He also taught "Writing for the Media" as a visiting lecturer at Duke University for 10 years.

Joyce Fitzpatrick (2000)

Just four years after graduating from the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Joyce Fitzpatrick joined forces with a Carter Administration veteran and launched Peabody-Fitzpatrick Communications in Washington, D.C. It proved to be the first of many bold and successful moves in her distinguished public relations career.

As Peabody-Fitzpatrick gained recognition in Washington public relations circles, it attracted the attention of larger, national agencies. Ruder Finn, an international agency, acquired Peabody-Fitzpatrick in 1991. Fitzpatrick then served as president of Ruder Finn in Raleigh.

Fitzpatrick also helped bring national attention to the state's burgeoning arts, cultural and entertainment scene, working with almost every major museum, higher educational institution and cultural organization in North Carolina.

Among her accomplishments are attracting national exposure for the Bicentennial Celebration at UNC in 1993; cultivating national and international media attention for the N.C. School of the Arts on its 30th anniversary in 1995; marking the N.C. Museum of Art's 50th anniversary in 1997 and its blockbuster Rodin Exhibition in 2000 through her leadership on the museum's Foundation Board; winning support from government, business and community leaders for Exploris, the world's first "global learning center," which opened in downtown Raleigh in 1998; bringing national media attention to the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences; and reawakening statewide attention and support for the N.C. Symphony and its Meymandi Concert Hall.

In her ties to education, Fitzpatrick has made efforts to provide college students with internships and has served as an adjunct professor and guest lecturer in the school. She regularly conducted seminars at colleges and universities, including MIT's Sloan School of Management, the Georgetown University Law Center and the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at Carolina. In addition, she has been a member of the school's Foundation Board, a member of the Board of Visitors of the Kenan-Flagler School and chairman of the UNC Board of Visitors.

She is recognized as a specialist in crisis and change communications. InsidePR magazine named Fitzpatrick a PR All-Star for her employee communications work at IBM Corp. in 1992. She was named a Distinguished Young Alumna at UNC in 1995, ranked among the Triangle's Most Powerful Women by Triangle Business Journal in 1996, and elected to the YWCA of Wake County's Academy of Women in 1997.

John Harden (1988)

John Harden, a native of Graham, N.C., who died in 1985, is considered a pioneer in public relations in the state. He served five N.C. governors: Gregg Cherry, Kerr Scott, William B. Umstead, Dan K. Moore and Luther Hodges.

In 1959, Harden established the first full-service public relations firm in North Carolina, John Harden Associates. The firm had offices in Greensboro, Raleigh and Charlotte. Harden owned and operated the company until he sold it in 1981.

Harden is often referred to as the father of public relations in North Carolina. He was one of the first corporate public relations officers in the state, working at Burlington Industries. He organized and managed the company's public relations program for 10 years and later set up a similar program at Cannon Mills.

Harden also worked as reporter, columnist and editor of several newspapers in Burlington, Raleigh, Charlotte, Salisbury and Greensboro.

He had numerous appointments to state councils and commissions and worked many years on behalf of public education, mental hospitals, educational television, state employees, and conservation and development. Gov. Hodges appointed Harden to head North Carolina's first trade mission to Europe.

Harden graduated from Carolina in 1927. As a student he worked for the University's News Bureau and remained as assistant director the year after he graduated. He received numerous honors, including the Charlotte Public Relations Society's Infinity Award.

Bill Hensley (1997)

Bill Hensley, who was born in Asheville in 1926, spent more than 40 years promoting North Carolina and its people. He began his public relations career as a reporter and wire editor at the Asheville Citizen in 1950. After a brief stint as an FBI agent, he was named the first full-time sports information director at Wake Forest University, his alma mater. He worked at N.C. State University in a similar capacity before being named a public relations director for R.S. Dickson, an investment banking firm, and a marketing officer for Wachovia Bank.

Then-Gov. Dan Moore named him to head North Carolina's Travel and Promotion Division (1965-71). As the state's chief promoter, he directed promotional programs that received top national honors from the Discover American Travel Organizations in 1966.

In 1977, he started his own public relations firm, Hensley Associates. His clients included Arthur Anderson and Company, Pebble Beach, Pinehurst Resort, Grove Park Inn and Piedmont Airlines.

Hensley received the Parker Award from the N.C. Travel Council in 1975 and the coveted Marco Polo membership from the Society of American Travel Writers in 1990.

Charles X. Larrabee (1992)

Larrabee, a Durham resident and the author of "Many Missions," the definitive history of Research Triangle Institute (RTI), served as the institute's manager of public information and public relations from 1964 until his retirement in 1989.

"Working in public relations for RTI," he remarked, "was a bit like being the public relations man for apple pie."

Larrabee spent two years at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., before serving in the Marines from 1942 to 1945. He took a position as a junior reporter and editor's assistant with the San Francisco Chronicle in 1946. From 1953 to 1956, Larrabee was assistant to the director of the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, Calif., and he joined the staff of Collier's magazine as assistant general manager and acting fiction editor for a year afterward. From 1957 to 1964, Larrabee worked in public relations for the United Fruit Co. in Boston and Spindletop Research in Lexington, Ky.

During his tenure at RTI, he received the Infinity Award from the Charlotte Public Relations Society. "X," as he is often called, was also president of the N.C. chapter of the Public Relations Society of America in 1973.

In a November 1991 editorial in the North Carolina Beacon, publisher Margaret Knox wrote: "Often I feel I could never have launched my first newspaper, The Leader, without his staunch support, and he had friendly words of caution and concern about the North Carolina Beacon. 'X' is a very wise and dear man."

Hugh M. Morton (1990)

Hugh Morton, often called the father of N.C. photojournalism education, is a nationally known photographer and developer of Grandfather Mountain resort near Linville.

Morton attended UNC in the early 1940s and was editor of the yearbook, the Yackety Yack. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he  returned to Wilmington to enter the family real estate business, acting as company president from 1947 to 1952.

In 1952 he formed two companies, one being Grandfather Mountain Inc. in Linville, N.C. From 1951 to 1961, he served as a member of the N.C. Board of Conservation and Development. Many of his scenic photographs appeared on state publications, including state highway maps. In 1967 G.F. Co. was established to develop Grandfather Golf and Country Club. Morton served as president of that company and G.F. Enterprises.

Morton was instrumental in starting the popular Southern Short Course in News Photography, a three-day event each spring. He chaired the program for 15 years.

Morton was a charter member of the National Press Photographers Association and president of the Carolinas Press Photographers Association, now called the N.C. Press Photographers Association. He organizes the Annual Camera Clinic at Grandfather Mountain and a Nature Photography Weekend.

Morton is also an active environmentalist. He received the state's highest honor for public service, the North Carolina Award, and co-authored "Making a Difference in North Carolina" with Ed Rankin.

Morton is past chairman of Western North Carolina Tomorrow, a mountain leadership organization that secured passage of the Ridge Law to protect the state's highest peaks. He organized the Save Cape Hatteras Lighthouse campaign and has produced a number of wildlife films that won national and international awards.

In 1956 he was campaign publicity manager for Luther Hodges' bid for governor. He is a past president of the Carolina General Alumni Association. He was chairman of the U.S.S. North Carolina Battleship Commission at the time the ship was saved from demolition and brought to Wilmington.

Morton died in 2006. He was 85.

Max Muhleman (1996)

Max Muhleman has served as president of Muhleman Marketing Inc., of Charlotte, a leading sports marketing company serving corporations such as Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola USA, DuPont and professional sports clients.

Muhleman and his firm established and managed the strategy that helped Charlotte land its major league sports franchises: the NBA's Charlotte Hornets and the NFL's Carolina Panthers. He developed the concept of the permanent seat license, a private financing plan vesting ticket control in fans, which was used to help fund the Panthers' $170 million stadium. Other groups, including Baltimore, Nashville, St. Louis and Oakland, have hired Muhleman to develop plans for professional sports franchises and facilities.

Born in Parkersburg, W.Va., he grew up in Greenville, S.C., where he attended Furman University. He began his remarkable career as a sportswriter and columnist for The Greenville (S.C.) Piedmont in 1955. Later he joined The Charlotte News and won several awards, including best column of the year from the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.

After serving as a public relations director for Ford Motor Company's Cobra car in Los Angeles, he became vice president and general manager of an international motorsports company that built and raced Eagle cars. That experience led him to form his own company, Muhleman Marketing and Public Relations, in Newport Beach, Calif. He spent nearly 14 years dealing with major league sports and Fortune 500 companies before returning to Charlotte in 1979. He moved his sports marketing company to the Tar Heel state in 1982.

Edward L. Rankin Jr. (1989)

Edward L. Rankin Jr., of Concord, N.C., has combined service with a career that has included journalism, administration, public relations, business and health affairs.

He graduated from Carolina in 1940 and worked as a reporter for The Salisbury Evening Post, The News & Observer in Raleigh and the Associated Press.

Rankin served as press secretary to U.S. Sen. William B. Umstead. When Umstead was elected governor, Rankin became his private secretary and was placed in charge of the governor's office. He continued as private secretary for Gov. Luther H. Hodges and later served as director of administration for Gov. Dan K. Moore. After leaving state government, he headed the N.C. Citizens Association and was publisher of North Carolina magazine.

His experience in public relations has included serving as supervisor of public relations for Burlington Industries in Greensboro and vice president of John Harden Associates in Raleigh, a public relations consulting firm. In 1972 he joined Cannon Mills Co. in Kannapolis, N.C., as vice president of public relations and retired from that company in 1985.

Rankin has served a trustee and as chairman of the board of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina for more than 20 years. He was a director of the AAA Carolina Motor Club and trustee of the UNC Center for Public Television. His past positions include chairman of the State Board of Mental Health, chairman of the U.S.S. North Carolina Battleship Memorial Commission and president of the UNC General Alumni Association. He is also a recipient of the alumni association's Distinguished Service Medal.

Rankin authored of "A Century of Progress," a history of Cannon Mills Co., and co-authored Making a Difference in North CarolinaHugh M. Morton.

Carol Reuss (1996)

Carol Reuss joined the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication's faculty in 1976 when the school had no public relations courses. Her experience and knowledge guided the development of the public relations sequence, which today is widely recognized for its excellence at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. She retired from teaching on June 30, 1996.

She has been active in journalism and mass communication education nationally. She was chairwoman of the national Accrediting Committee of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) and has been a member of the publication boards of Public Relations Review, Journalism History and Journalism Quarterly. She co-edited two editions of Inside Organizational Communication and is co-author of several other books.

Among her honors: the President's Award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the Magazine Educator of the Year Award from the Magazine Division of AEJMC in 1993 and the 1995 Mary Turner Lane Award at UNC from the Association for Women Faculty.

Reuss served as associate provost from 1987 to 1994 under three different provosts in UNC's central administration.

H. Zane Robbins (1994)

Zane Robbins is known for being one of the nation's leading public relations executives. He was born in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Jan. 17, 1930, and received his A.B. from the UNC School of Journalism in 1952.

After working as a general assignment reporter on the Atlanta Constitution, he served two years in the U.S. Army and in 1955 joined General Electric Company as public relations manager for five years. From 1960 to 1970, he served as vice president and general manager of Burson-Marsteller, a major international counseling firm. In 1970, Robbins formed his own company, Beveridge and Robbins Inc. in Chicago, and served as CEO for seven years. In 1977, he joined Arthur Andersen & Co. in Chicago and served as the firm's first director of communications.

Robbins developed a 22-hour course, "Proposing for New Business," in 1982 and has taught it approximately 100 times in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Spain. He is the author of a book, "A Vision of Grandeur," and numerous articles in professional publications.

Robbins' awards include the prestigious Silver Anvil of the Public Relations Society of America, a Freedom Foundation Award, the Eagle Award of the Chicago Financial Advertisers, six Golden Trumpets of the Publicity Club of Chicago, eight "Oscars of Industry," presented by Financial World Magazine for outstanding corporate annual reports, and many others.

Merrill Rose (1999)

Merrill Rose has built a reputation as a leading public relations practitioner and expert in crisis communication.

Rose, 44, was born in Beaufort, N.C., and is a 1977 graduate of the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

After initial work as a consumer reporter and as assistant editor of Washington Journalism Review, she joined Porter Novelli, an international public relations firm, in 1982. Rose served as a national practice leader, as general manager of the firm's Chicago office, and as director-Europe, based in Brussels, Belgium. She then became executive vice president for the firm.

Rose has directed a variety of groundbreaking campaigns at Porter Novelli, including the first national health promotion program targeting older people (for the U.S. Public Health Service), the first national campaign promoting low-fat eating (for the Kaiser Family Foundation), and the introduction of the first genetically modified whole food produced in the United States, the "Flavr Savr" tomato.

In 1995, Rose was named a "Public Relations All-Star" by Inside PR magazine, which noted that she has "handled some of the thorniest issues in food marketing over the past few years" and "brought to those issues an understanding of the science, the business world and the consumer's perspective that helped guide the choices of her clients and expedite their success in the marketplace."

Rose has served as a member of the school's Visitors. She has served on the national Accrediting Committee of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. She has served on the Board of Directors of CARE, the world's largest private relief and development organization, and chaired its marketing committee.

J. Kenneth Sanford (1995)

Ken Sanford has been a major figure in public relations in North Carolina since 1954. He began his career in the public relations office at United Appeal in Asheville, N.C., and joined the Winston-Salem Journal as a reporter and copy editor. After serving several posts at the newspaper, he eventually became an editorial writer covering the legislature.

In 1964, when he heard about plans to expand the state's university system, he went to work for Charlotte College as director of public information and publications. The college became a part of the University system as UNC-Charlotte in 1965, and by 1977 he helped transform it from a campus with 1,800 students to one with a much larger enrollment, dorms, master's degrees and a men's basketball team that made the NCAA Final Four. He retired in 1994 after three decades of promoting UNC-C.

He was president of the Charlotte Public Relations Society in 1974 and the first founding member and past president of the Public Relations Society of America's Charlotte chapter. He was one of the city's first public relations professionals to pass the national society's voluntary accreditation examination. He was elected to the second class of the PRSA College of Fellows in 1991. He twice served as president of the College News Association of the Carolinas and received its Gaston Award for contributions to college public relations in 1982.

He was born in Clyde, N.C., on Jan. 23, 1932, and received his bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism from Carolina in 1954 and 1958, respectively.

Julian W. Scheer (1991)

Scheer's long and distinguished career in public relations began while he attended UNC and served as assistant sports information director. He also owned and operated a syndicated news feature service based in Chapel Hill from 1947 to 1952.

Receiving his degree from Carolina in 1950, he moved to Charlotte in 1952 and spent nine years with The Charlotte News covering the state and national political scene and writing both a daily human interest column and a political column.

He also contributed regularly during that time to many national publications, including Newsweek, Life and The New Republic, and he wrote for film, radio and TV.

In 1962 Scheer joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, where he designed the information program for the Kennedy Administration's mission to the moon. From 1962 to 1971, he was public information director for NASA, conducting the largest and most comprehensive press information program in the country. His landmark achievements there include arranging the live coverage of the first lunar landing and the live coverage from the moon.

For these and other accomplishments during the Gemini, Mercury and Apollo space programs, NASA bestowed upon him its highest award, the Distinguished Service Medal.

Scheer joined LTV, one of the nation's largest aerospace, steel and energy firms, in 1976, holding overall responsibility for communication programs.

He has been a member of the board of directors of a number of companies, including Whitney Centers Inc., Ross Industries and Scott Science and Technology. He was a member of the advisory council of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was a trustee of the National Air and Space Museum.

A Richmond, Va., native, Scheer is the author of five published books, including three for adults and two for children. One of his children's books, "Rain Makes Applesauce," published in 1965, was runner-up for the Caldecott Award as the outstanding juvenile book of the year.

Scheer died in 2001. He was 75.

H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler (2004)

As president and general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway, H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler helped transform the 1.5-mile race track into one of the premier motorsports facilities in the world.

During Wheeler's tenure, the track, located in Concord, N.C., was the first superspeedway to add lights for night racing; add condominiums and a luxurious private club with dining and banquet facilities; and incorporate spectacular pre-race entertainment. In 1995, Wheeler and speedway owner Bruton Smith took the company — Speedway Motorsports Inc. — public, becoming the first in the motorsports industry to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Born in Belmont, N.C., Wheeler attended the University of South Carolina on a football scholarship and earned his journalism degree in 1961. Before joining the speedway, he worked as a sports writer, television director, public information officer, public relations executive, dirt track operator and director of racing for Firestone Tire and Rubber Co.

Wheeler has been extremely active in civic affairs at the local and national levels. A past chairman of the Charlotte Convention and Visitors Bureau, he has also served on the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, the Cabarrus Regional Chamber of Commerce and numerous other boards. He has also served on the board for Belmont Abbey College, the National Motorsports Council and the Governor's Sports Commission.

Wheeler has earned numerous professional and civic awards, including the Belmont Abbey Grace Award, the Charlotte Chamber's Entrepreneur of the Year award in 1999, the Charlotte Public Relations Society Infinity Award, the National Auto Racing Promoter of the Year Award and the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest honor bestowed by the governor of North Carolina for public service.

Nancy Neal Young (1999)

In nearly 30 years as a public relations professional, Nancy Neal Young has earned acclaim for making connections between companies and communities.

Young was born in Belews Creek, N.C., and attended Wake Forest University. From 1967 to1971, she worked as a reporter for the Shelby (N.C.) Daily Star and the Whiteville (N.C.) News Reporter.

In 1972, Young began her public relations career at Pilot Freight Carriers, where she eventually rose to the position of director of public relations and advertising. She stayed with the company until 1982.

From 1982 to 1984, Young served as manager for the Greensboro, N.C., office of Epley Associates, a public relations consulting firm. In summer 1984, she was press secretary for the Eddie Knox gubernatorial campaign.

From 1984 to 1998, she worked for the Sara Lee Corp. in Winston-Salem, where she held such posts as manager of corporate affairs and director of corporate affairs and community relations. Young later accepted the position of corporate vice president for communications and community relations at the Russell Corp., a sports apparel company based in Alexander City, Ala.

Young's professional and community service garnered her numerous awards, including a 1991 NAACP Corporate Support Award, a 1994 NAACP President's Award and a 1994 YMCA Career Achievement Award. She is a former president of both the N.C. Tar Heel Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America and the N.C. Piedmont Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators, and she is a former chairwoman of the board of directors of the Urban League of Winston-Salem.