 2008
Lifetime Achievement:
Harold Burson
Congratulations to this year’s Lifetime Achievement
Award recipient Harold Burson.
 Harold
Burson, in a survey conducted by PRWeek, was
described as "the century's most influential PR figure.”
PRWeek's summary of his career recapitulates his
role as public relations’ preeminent practitioner:
"The architect of the largest public relations agency in
the world today, Burson-Marsteller chairman Harold
Burson's contribution is immense in many other ways
besides. He started practicing the concept of integrated
marketing decades before the term was even invented. He
brought PR into the advertising business at Young &
Rubicam as an equal (it's arguably never been achieved
again). His development of training programs set the
benchmark that other agencies have only recently caught
up with. He has personally sponsored and supported
programs, industry bodies, universities and charities to
improve the profession. His mentoring of talent has
spawned a whole wave of ex-Burson PR agency start-ups.
He created a unique Burson culture that still unites
former employees. And last but certainly not least, his
personal counsel has enlightened the thinking of
boardrooms at many Fortune 100 companies and across the
globe."
He was CEO of Burson Marsteller for 35 years. It became
the world’s largest public relations firm in 1983.
 Boston
University honored him with a Doctor of Humane Letters
degree (hon.) in 1988 and a Chair in Public Relations
was established in his name at Boston University in
2002. He is a graduate of the University of Mississippi
and was elected to the Alumni Hall of Fame in 1986. He
is a veteran of World War II with service as a combat
engineer in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. As an
Army news correspondent for American Forces Network, he
covered the Nuremberg Trial of leading Nazi war
criminals.
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