Greater Spokane PRSA Chapter History

By JOY SCOTT

Board Member  2001-03

Starting a new chapter of an organization is a considerable challenge. It did not instantly begin one day with a meeting of public relations professionals in the area. The roots of the Greater Spokane Chapter probably go back to 1967, when Tom Hogan of Thomas G. Hogan and Associates Inc., a public relations counseling firm, first became a member of national PRSA.

In the 1970s other PR professionals had joined and become accredited in the national organization, such as Ken Degerness, APR, of Degerness and Associates, and Jerry Shackette, APR, of the Spokesman Review/Chronicle. Getting a group together to form a local chapter took hours of individually calling people in the Spokane vicinity.

The charter members of the Greater Spokane Chapter, as of June 1980, consisted of six women and 11 men – a mix that had a strong showing of women at a time when public relations was still a male-dominated career field.

Article from the Nov. 5, 1967, issue of the Spokesman-Review:

Spokane Man Is Elected by PR Group

Public Relations Society of America announced from New York Saturday that Thomas G. Hogan of Spokane has been unanimously elected to active membership in the society by the group's board of directors.

"To be eligible for membership," the society said, "a person shall have a reputation for ethical conduct and integrity and must have devoted all or a major portion of his time for a period of not less than five years to the practice of public relations on an executive level."

Hogan, a native of Spokane, is president of Thomas G. Hogan and Associates Inc. public relations counseling firm.

He is only one of two Spokane men listed as members of the society. The other is Dr. Albert L. Ayars, superintendent of Spokane School District 81, who was elected several years ago when he dealt in public relations in another city.

Hogan was selected Advertising Man and Sales Associate of the Year in 1966 by the Advertising and Sales Association of Spokane and selected as one of the 10 Outstanding Young Men in the state in 1965 by the state Junior Chamber of Commerce. He also received the Distinguished Service Award from the Spokane Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1965.

Charter Members