Harold Brayman papers

Harold Brayman (1900-1988), former director of the Public Relations Department of Du Pont Company, retired from that position March 31, 1965. He had headed that activity of the company for 21 years, establishing a concept of public relations which was widely emulated throughout the United States.

Harold Brayman was born on March 10, 1900, at Middleburgh, New York. He received his A.B. degree in 1920 from Cornell University, and was awarded an honorary LL.D. by Gettysburg College in 1965.

Brayman went to Du Pont in 1942 after a distinguished newspaper career of twenty years, fourteen of them spent as Washington correspondent for leading New York and other American dailies. He started his journalistic career as Albany legislative correspondent for various newspapers in New York City and state, and had served briefly in London as a foreign correspondent.

Harold Brayman first went to Washington in 1928 as correspondent of the New York Evening Post. When the Post was sold by the Cyrus H.K. Curtis estate in 1933, he remained with the Curtis organization as Washington correspondent of the Philadelphia Evening Ledger until 1940. From then until 1942, he was a correspondent for Jesse H. Jones' Houston Chronicle. Meanwhile he wrote his syndicated columns, "The Daily Mirror of Washington," 1937-1940, and "Washington Preview," 1940-1942.

As a specialist in reporting and analyzing political events, Brayman attended all national political conventions from 1928 through 1940. He crisscrossed the nation as a correspondent on the presidential campaign trains of Alfred E. Smith in 1928, President Roosevelt in 1932, Alfred M. Landon in 1936, and Wendell L. Wilkie in 1940.

While a correspondent in Washington, Brayman was president of the National Press Club in 1938 and president of the Gridiron Club in 1941, one of the very few Washington correspondents to have been elected president of both of these organizations .

Harold Brayman was appointed assistant director of the Public Relations Department of the Du Pont Company in April 1942, and two years later, upon the death of Ted Joslin, became director, a position he would hold until 1965.

Brayman authored several books, including Corporate Management in a World of Politics (McGraw-Hill, 1967), a book on the public, political, and governmental problems of business; Developing a Philosophy for Business Action (1969); A history of the Lincoln Club of Delaware (1970), with A.O.H. Grier; and The President Speaks off the record… (Dow Jones, 1976), a history of the Gridiron Club.

Brayman was a member of the Board of Visitors of the School of Public Communication, Boston University, from 1951 to 1972, and chairman 1961-1972. He was a member of the Public Relations Advisory Committee of the Manufacturing Chemists Association from 1951 to 1956, serving as chairman from 1951 to 1953; a member of the Sponsoring Committee of the annual Public Relations Seminar from 1952 to 1961; and a trustee of the Foundation for Public Relations Research and Education from 1956 to 1962.

He was a member for many years of the United States Chamber of Commerce Committee on Taxation and of other Chamber committees. Brayman was editor of the Public Relations Journal, organ of the Public Relations Society of America, during 1956; and in 1963 was awarded the citation of the Society for "distinguished service in the advancement of public relations.” He was also named "Public Relations Professional of 1963" by the Public Relations News. In 1965 Brayman was given the "Golden Plate" award of the American Academy of Achievement, the first award of that organization in the field of public relations. He was vice president of the organization from 1966 to 1973.

Active in the affairs of Cornell University, Brayman was a member of the Cornell council, was its chairman from 1961 to 1963, and was also a member of the University's Centennial Celebration Committee . He also served as chairman of the Advisory Council of the Graduate School of Business and Public Administration from 1960 to 1965. Brayman was president of the Cornell Club of Delaware for 1955-1956.

Brayman was a member of the Board of Directors of the Continental American Life Insurance Company and the Greater Wilmington Development Council. He served as a trustee of the Wilmington Medical Center, was a trustee of Gettysburg College, and in 1968 served as the first Corporate Executive in Residence for the American University, Washington, D.C. He was president of the Lincoln Club of Delaware for 1965-1966, and was on the Board of the Wilmington Country Club from 1952 to 1964. He was a member of the Wilmington Club, the Greenville Country Club, the Du Pont Country Club, and Rotary Club of Wilmington; the University Club (N.Y.); and the Gridiron, National Press, and Overseas Writers Clubs in Washington, D.C.

Harold Brayman married Martha Witherspoon Wood on January 25, 1930, and they had two sons, Harold Halliday and Walter Witherspoon. Brayman died in Wilmington on January 3, 1988.

Biographical note adapted from a press release in the collection.

1920

Democrat: James Cox and Franklin Roosevelt

Republican: Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge (winner)

1924

Democrat: John Davis and Charles Bryan

Republican: Calvin Coolidge and Charles Dawes (winner)

1928

Democrat: Alfred Smith and Joseph Robinson

Republican: Herbert Hoover and Charles Curtis (winner)

1932

Democrat: Franklin Roosevelt and John Garner (winner)

Republican: Herbert Hoover and Charles Curtis

1936

Democrat: Franklin Roosevelt and John Garner (winner)

Republican: Alfred Landon and Frank Knox

1940

Democrat: Franklin Roosevelt and Henry Wallace (winner)

Republican: Wendell Wilkie and Charles McNary