 2005
Lifetime Achievement
Mort Kaplan
Congratulations to this year’s Lifetime Achievement
Award recipient, Morton H. Kaplan.
Kaplan is a consultant in public relations and
communication strategies, specializing in business, the
arts and government. He currently is a tenured professor
of marketing communications and director of the Public
Relations Studies concentration at Columbia College in
Chicago.
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| Mort Kaplan, PCC's 2005
Lifetime Achievement Honoree |
Kaplan
established and maintained Morton H. Kaplan Associates,
one of Chicago’s most successful public relations
agencies for nearly two decades from the 1960s to the
1980s. The firm was later acquired by Ketchum
Communications. Kaplan was appointed to the board of
directors and named executive vice president and general
manager of Chicago/ Midwest operations of Ketchum Public
Relations. In this capacity, he supervised such accounts
as Motorola, Miller Brewing company, American Bar
Association (Litigation and Human Rights sections) and
many other blue chip organizations.
Kaplan has been a trustee of the Chicago Theater
Foundation, a director of Steppenwolf Theater Company
and also served as a professional consultant to the
League of Chicago Theaters. Kaplan was the first
President and co-founder of the Illinois Arts Alliance,
a statewide citizens advocacy organization for the
performing and visual arts. He also was President of the
Illinois Arts Action Coalition, a companion organization
for lobbying. These organizations, which he later served
as chairman, were hailed for having staved off major
cuts in government support of the arts. Kaplan later
received the organization’s highest award for cultural
leadership.
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| The honoree with friend and
colleague Hedy Ratner (Women's Business
Development Center), who introduced him to the
PCC audience. |
He is a one-time member of the Midwest Advisory Board
for the Advertising Council, a trustee of the Kate
Maremont Foundation, was a director of several
corporations including Silvestri Manufacturing Company,
and a founding director of the Committee on Illinois
Government. Kaplan is the recipient of a special award
presented by the Chicago Park District for co-creating
and implementing the Chicago Sports Hall of Fame. His
firm both represented and named the Rosemont Horizon.
A former board member of the Public Relations Society
of America (Chicago chapter), Kaplan is also a lifetime
member of the Publicity Club of Chicago. During his
professional career, he was a frequent guest lecturer at
the University of Chicago and Loyola University and has
done considerable media training, presentation skills
training and crisis communications.
Prior to accepting his appointment at Columbia
College, he was an adjunct instructor in the graduate
division of Northwestern University’s Medill School of
Journalism in the corporate communications
concentration. At Columbia, his students won a national
best practices competition for work on Organ Donor
Awareness, a major public relations campaign open to
more than 200 colleges and universities nationwide.
In 2001, Kaplan co-created a program for students
seeking careers in movie and entertainment PR, taking
students to Los Angeles each fall for a crash course in
a rented bungalow on the CBS lot. He also worked with a
consortium from the University of Chicago and WTTW-Public
Television to provide a national public service TV
campaign on ethnic diversity to help promote racial
harmony. Kaplan has written and produced a number of
public service TV and radio campaigns as well as
political commercials. His services as a communications
consultant have been employed by public officials
including presidential candidates, U.S. senators and
congressmen, municipalities, trade associations and
non-profit groups.
Kaplan wrote and narrated his own radio commentaries,
“Amusing Myself at Your Expense,” that aired on WKOX,
then the NBC radio outlet in Chicago. His articles have
appeared in numerous publications, and he is a frequent
guest on Chicago Tonight, WTTW-TV. His recent book,
“When You Speak, Do They Listen?” was published in 2004
by Columbia. A marketing graduate of DePaul University,
Kaplan served during the Korean War in the United States
Counter-Intelligence Corps.
The father of three adult daughters, he is a resident
of the near north side of Chicago where he maintains
interests in the arts and pursues avocational interests
in theater, travel, golf, literature and a lifelong
devotion to public relations and communications.
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