Milt Gossett Receives DeWitt Carter Reddick Award

Milt Gossett, retired chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide, received the annual DeWitt Carter Reddick Award at the College of Communications Honors Convocation on March 24, 2001. Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Patricia Stout introduced Mr. Gossett and presented the award, which recognizes excellence in the field of communications.

The following information is excerpted from the Honors Convocation

Program:

Milt Gossett, a pioneer in the field of advertising and the retired Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide, attended Stevens Institute of Technology in the Navy V-12 program and the Midshipman Training School at Northwestern University. After receiving his commission, he served with the 7th Fleet in the Pacific during World War II. In 1949, he joined Compton Advertising as a print traffic secretary and quickly advanced in the company until he became Chairman in 1977. After the merger of Compton Advertising with the U.K. agency Saatchi & Saatchi in 1982, Gossett became Chairman and CEO of the joint company. With Gossett leading the company, Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide became one of the largest advertising networks in the world. Some of its key accounts today are Toyota, Hewlett Packard, Johnson & Johnson, General Mills, Paine Webber, and Procter & Gamble.

Gossett is a retired National Chairman of Religion in American Life. He serves on the Board of Directors of the National Center for Health Education and is a member of the Center for Health Communication of the Harvard School of Public Health. He is also a Director of the Advertising Council and a member of the Board of the American Advertising Federation Foundation. In 1998, he was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame and was presented the Distinguished Service Award from the American Academy of Advertising. Gossett and his wife Anna reside in South Salem, N.Y., where they keep their hands full pursuing a career as consultants to 11 grandchildren.

DeWitt Carter Reddick, first dean of the College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin, taught thousands of journalism students from 1927 until his retirement in 1975. One of the universitys most effective teachers, Dr. Reddick served as Director of the School of Journalism at UT-Austin from 1959 to 1965, and was Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences from 1956 to 1959.

The DeWitt Carter Reddick Award was presented for the first time in 1974 to Walter Cronkite. Succeeding recipients were: Bill Moyers, 1975; Wilbur Schramm, 1976; Nicholas Johnson, 1977; Robert Keeshan, 1978; Don Carter, 1979; Fred Friendly, 1980; William Paley, 1981; Otis Chandler, 1982; Joe Dealey, 1983; Helen Thomas, 1984; Robert Maynard, 1985; Joan Ganz Cooney, 1986; Sid Sheinberg, 1987; Sylvia Chase, 1988; Ted Turner, 1989; George Stevens, Jr., 1990; Tom Johnson, 1991; Allen H. (Al) Neuharth, 1992; Edward N. Ney, 1993; Frank A. Bennack, Jr., 1994; Molly Ivins, 1995; Stan Richards, 1996; Linda Ellerbee, 1997; Jack R. Crosby, 1998; William J. Raspberry, 1999; and Bill Wittliff, 2000.

5/15/2001