Joseph Frederick Awad, American public relations consultant, retired metal company executive. Named to Virginia Communications Hall of Fame, 1992.
Background
His father was a first generation Lebanese immigrant and his mother a first generation Irish immigrant. In 1939, after the death of his mother, his father moved them to Washington District of Columbia and opened a barber shop in the Mayflower Hotel.
Education
He then attended Georgetown University where he was editor of The Georgetown Journal, and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor in English Literature.
Career
He was appointed national president of the Public Relations Society of America in 1982 and Poet Laureate of Virginia in 1998. Awad was inducted into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame in 1992. His poetry has been anthologized with both Arab-American and Irish-American writers (see List of Arab American writers).
Born in the coal-mining town of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania to Frederick Awad and Helen Dwyer.
Awad obtained a scholarship to Gonzaga College High School. While in school he worked for the Washington Bureau of the New York Daily News, then later for Dave Herman public relations firm.
He took graduate courses in literature at George Washington University and night courses in painting and drawing at the Corcoran School of Artist Awad went to work with Reynolds Metals Company in 1957, from which he retired in 1993 as executive vice president for public relations.
They have ten children.
He was also chairman of the Diocesan Communications Commission and vice-president of the Virginia Writer"s Club. Joseph Awad died in Richmond, Virginia, surrounded by his family on July 17, 2009. Public Relations Awad was appointed national president of the Public Relations Society of America in 1982 and chaired their prestigious College of Fellows.
The Power of Public Relations was published in 1985 by Praeger Publishers, New New York He was inducted into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame in 1992.
He was a member and eventual president of the Society of Virginia and awarded their Edgar Allan Poe Prize. Other prizes include The Lyric’s Nathan Haskell Dole Prize and the Donn Goodwin Prize foreign
Public Relations The Power of Public Relations, 1985 Anthologies American Religious Poems, an anthology by Harold Bloom Grape Leaves: A Century of Arab-American The Next Parish Over: A Collection of Irish-American Writing Menton’s Anthology of Magazine Verse and Yearbook of American The Zero Anthology The Society of Virginia Anthology.
Board trustees New Virginia Review, Richmond, since 1984. Member Public Relations Society of America (accredited, national president 1982, chairman college fellows 1991, president Old Dominion chapter 1971, Thomas Jefferson award 1982), International Public Relations Association, Richmond Public Relations Association (president 1970-1971), North America Public Relations Council (chairman 1982-1983), Poetry Society Virginia (president 1993-1996), Virginia Writers Club, Dioscean Communications Commission (chairman, board directors Catholic Charities).
Interests
Poetry, painting.
Connections
Married Doris Catherine Brown, December 28, 1950. Children: Michael, Jean, Patricia, Mary, Judith, Marguerite, Timothy, Clare, Ann, Christopher.