Chair of UA’s Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations Dies

Betsy Plank, chair of The University of Alabama’s Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations and the “First Lady” of public relations, died Sunday, May 23, in Chicago.  She was 86.

Plank, a 1944 UA alumna and Tuscaloosa native who spent her entire professional career in Chicago, oversaw the creation and development of the Plank Center after the UA Board of Trustees established it in her name in 2005. The Center’s primary mission is to help develop and recognize outstanding leaders and role models in public relations.

“The Center is led by a national advisory board of leading practitioners and educators, but Betsy was its heart and soul,” said Dr. Karla Gower, director of the Center.  “It was Betsy’s vision that everyone connected with the Center worked to realize, and they are dedicated to continue doing so.”

A legend in public relations, Plank’s career spanned more than 60 years and is a litany of firsts.  She was the first woman to serve as president of the Public Relations Society of America and the first to receive three of PRSA’s top individual awards:  the Gold Anvil Award in 1977 for being the outstanding U.S. professional; the 1989 Paul M. Lund Public Service Award for exemplary civic and community work; and the first Patrick Jackson Award for distinguished service to PRSA in 2001.

In 1979, readers of Public Relations News elected her Professional of the Year, the first time a woman was chosen.  The same publication named her one of the World’s 40 Outstanding Public Relations Leaders in 1984.  She was the first recipient of the Arthur W. Page Society’s Distinguished Service Award in 2000 and the PRSA Educators Academy’s 1997 David W. Ferguson Award for exceptional contributions by a practitioner to public relations education.

In 2000, the Institute for Public Relations honored Plank with its Alexander Hamilton Medal in recognition of her major contributions to the practice of public relations.  Also that year, she received the UA College of Communication and Information Sciences Distinguished Achievement award, which was later renamed the Betsy Plank Distinguished Achievement award.  The following year, she was inducted into the College’s Communication Hall of Fame.  In 2007, she received UA’s Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award. Five other universities have also recognized her. 

The Publicity Club of Chicago honored her in 2009 with its Lifetime Achievement Award.  In 1963, she was the first woman elected president of the club. 

Born April 3, 1924, Plank began her public relations career in 1947 in Chicago at a public relations and fundraising agency that served nonprofits.  In 1960, she joined what is now Edelman Public Relations Worldwide and rose to executive vice president and treasurer.  She left in 1973 to become director of public relations planning for AT&T before transferring to Illinois Bell (now AT&T Inc.) to direct urban, community and educational affairs, issues management and economic development.  She was the first woman to head a department at the company.  

While at Illinois Bell, she helped shape and articulate the company’s response to the divestiture of the Bell System.  “We had a couple of years to break up the world’s largest corporation and prepare it without a single missed step,” she recalled later.  She described it as “fascinating to live through, challenging to prepare for and carry out.”

She retired from corporate practice in 1990 but continued to work as a public relations consultant.  “In my lexicon, there is no such word as retirement,” she once wrote.

Plank was devoted to the Public Relations Student Society of America and served as its national advisor from 1981 to 1983.  She also co-founded a group of professionals known as the Champions for PRSSA.  In 1993, PRSSA honored Plank with its 25^th Anniversary Award. 

Plank was a tireless advocate for public relations education.  She co-chaired the first Commission on Undergraduate Public Relations Education (1987), which developed guidelines for public relations curricula at universities and colleges, and was a member of the subsequent commissions dealing with both undergraduate and graduate education.  She also helped establish PRSA’s Certification in Education in Public Relations program in 1989, which provides a review and endorsement process for undergraduate and graduate studies in public relations. 

“Through her exemplary leadership and passion for the profession, Betsy touched the hearts and minds of thousands of PR students, educators and practitioners,” Gower said.

Plank was predeceased by her husband Sherman V. Rosenfield.

At Plank’s request, no memorial service or funeral will be held. Memorial gifts may be made to the Plank Center for Public Relations Leadership at The University of Alabama, Box 870172, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0172.

The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations at UA works, through a variety of programs and in concert with groups and associations, to nurture the ethical and effective practice of public relations and help develop outstanding leaders.

The Center is housed in UA’s College of Communication and Information Sciences. UA’s public relations program, with nearly 600 students, is the largest undergraduate degree program within the college. The program is the 12^th in the nation to be reviewed and certified by the Public Relations Student Society of America.