2006 Pub­lic­ity Club of Chicago Life­time Achieve­ment Hon­oree:
Herb Kraus

Her­bert M. “Herb” Kraus began his career doing pub­lic rela­tions for the National Jew­ish Hos­pi­tal at Den­ver and State of Israel Bond Drive and opened his pub­lic rela­tions firm in 1954. He has rep­re­sented clients in a wide vari­ety of indus­tries, , edu­ca­tion, enter­tain­ment and the­atri­cal fields for the last five decades.

His Chicago area clients have included , the George Bernard Shaw Cen­te­nary, The Clarence Dar­row Cen­ten­nial, The Bresler Ice Cream Com­pany. Supe­rior Tea and Cof­fee, The Vienna Sausage Man­u­fac­tur­ing Com­pany, Inland Steel Con­tainer, and Lever Broth­ers, to name just a few.

For non-profits , Herb has han­dled fundrais­ing and pub­lic rela­tions for the All-Chicago Com­mit­tee for the Harry S. Tru­man Library and for the 50th anniver­sary of Arch­bishop Bernard J. Sheil’s ordi­na­tion. He man­aged pub­lic rela­tions for the din­ner that estab­lished the John Car­di­nal Cody Chair for the Amer­i­can Friends of Hebrew Uni­ver­sity, as well as been respon­si­ble for pub­lic rela­tions for the Amer­i­can Jew­ish Com­mit­tee, Anshe Emet Con­gre­ga­tion, a din­ner hon­or­ing Rabbi Her­man Schaal­man of Emanuel Con­gre­ga­tion attended by Car­di­nal Joseph Bernardin, and served as pub­lic rela­tions coun­sel for Sper­tus Col­lege super­vis­ing open­ings and spe­cial exhibits.

In enter­tain­ment, Herb rep­re­sented Tommy Bartlett’s Water Ski Sky and Stage show in the Wis­con­sin Dells for more than three decades, and has been the Chicago press agent for the Rin­gling Broth­ers Bar­num & Bai­ley Cir­cus, while rep­re­sent­ing many sum­mer and din­ner the­aters includ­ing the Can­dle­light Din­ner and Drury Lane Theaters.

In 1973, Herb merged his firm into Man­ning Sal­vage & Lee. After head­ing their Mid­west office for ten years, he became pres­i­dent of Kraus Dun­ham Nikolich Pub­lic Rela­tions, senior coun­selor for the Weiser Walek Group and the Finan­cial Rela­tions Board. Today, Herb, once again, heads his own agency.

Always con­cerned about the impor­tance of edu­cat­ing future pub­lic rela­tions pro­fes­sion­als, Herb is a long­time instruc­tor at Colum­bia Col­lege Chicago. Herb is a past pres­i­dent of the Pub­lic­ity Club of Chicago, and active with the Chicago Chap­ter of PRSA.

Herb is listed in Who’s Who in Amer­ica and was pre­sented the pres­ti­gious Richard Alschuler Award by the Amer­i­can Jew­ish Com­mit­tee. He is a mem­ber of the Head­line Club, Soci­ety of Pro­fes­sional Jour­nal­ists and has writ­ten a col­umn for The Chicago Jour­nal­ist: On Writ­ing Well.

Herb earned his bachelor’s degree in polit­i­cal sci­ence from the Uni­ver­sity of Illi­nois and served dur­ing World War II as an infantry com­bat cor­re­spon­dent in the South Pacific.

Herb has earned his rep­u­ta­tion as the dean of Chicago’s pub­lic rela­tions coun­selors and cred­its his suc­cess to his writ­ing abil­ity and his close work­ing rela­tion­ships with the media.