born Nov. 22, 1891, Vienna, Austria
died March 9, 1995, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.
U.S. publicist, the "father of public relations.
" A nephew of Sigmund Freud , he was born in Austria but was brought up in New York. In organizing endorsements for a play on the taboo subject of venereal disease, he found his calling as a publicist. His early clients included the U.S. War Department and the Lithuanian government. He edited The Engineering of Consent (1955), whose title is his often-quoted definition of public relations . He died at the age of 103.