Background

Richard Bruce was born on the 23rd of November, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. He was one of three children of Francis and Kathryn (Merry-Weather) Edler.

Education

Richard Bruce studied at the University of Iowa, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1965 and earned a Master of Business Administration degree four years later.

Career

In 1965, Richard Bruce Edler began to work as a copywriter at General Electric in Schenectady, where he served until 1967. Two years later, he joined Procter and Gamble Company in Cincinnati, where he worked as a brand manager for five years. After that, he was senior vice president at Ketchum Communications (now Ketchum Incorporated) in San Francisco, that post he held until 1981. Then, he accepted the post of president at Doyle Dane Bernbach (now DDB Worldwide) in Los Angeles. Also, he was president or managing director of McCann-Erickson and Foote, Cone and Belding. After that, he formed his own consulting firm, the R. B. Edler and Company, where he was president.

In 1992, Edler's son Mark was an 18-year-old freshman at the University of California in Los Angeles when he took a shortcut to his fraternity house by walking on top of a retaining wall. He fell to his death. In their anguish, Edler and his wife, Kitty, turned to an organization called Compassionate Friends, a support group for bereaved parents that began in England in 1969 and spread to the United States a decade later. After attending the group's national conference, the Edlers resolved to start a local chapter serving Los Angeles and the South Bay.

From 1993 to 1997, Richard Bruce was a chapter leader and also was former national president. Also, he led the Compassionate Friends Foundation, which raises money to support the organization's programs. Additionally, he was a popular speaker at Compassionate Friends conferences.

As the author, Richard Bruce Edler wrote If l Knew Then What I Know Now: CEOs and Other Smart Executives Share Wisdom They Wish They'd Been Told Twenty-five Years Ago, that came out in 1995. A year later, his Into the Valley and Out Again: The Story of a Father's Journey was published.

Achievements

• Richard Bruce Edler was an outstanding advertising industry leader, as well as a well-known author. In the early 1990s, he spearheaded a change in industry practice when he introduced the concept of sequential liability, a legal principle that protects advertising agencies from claims when their clients fail to pay their advertising bills. His book, If I Knew Then What I Know Now, which grew out of a commencement speech by Edler, has been reprinted in several languages.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Into the Valley and Out Again: The Story of a Father's Journey

    (After the unexpected death of his son, Richard's life see...)

    1996
  • If l Knew Then What I Know Now: CEOs and Other Smart Executives Share Wisdom They Wish They'd Been Told Twenty-Five Years Ago

    (Experience is the best teacher. If only it didn't take so...)

    1995

Views

As a speaker at Compassionate Friends conferences, Edler made a point of starting chapter meetings by giving every person in attendance an opportunity to talk about how his or her child died. His openness about his own grief process encouraged other men, in particular, to discuss their feelings.

Membership

Richard Bruce Edler was a member of the American Association of Advertising Agencies.

Personality

Physical Characteristics: Richard Bruce Edler died of a heart attack at 58.

Connections

Richard was married to Kitty. They had two sons, Mark, who died in 1992, and Rick.

Father:

Francis Edler

Mother:

Kathryn (Merry-Weather) Edler

Wife:

Kitty Edler

late son:

Mark Edler

Son:

Rick Edler