John Martin Meek

John Martin Meek is a retired communications executive, author, and occasional contributor of newspaper columns and features.

His first novel, The Christmas Hour, a teacher/student romance at the Washington National Cathedral’s elite prep schools, National Cathedral School for Girls and St. Albans School for Boys, was published in 2004 using the pen name, John Martin Hill.

Late in 2005, Meek published I Might Just Be Right, a collection of his newspaper columns and features written mostly after he restarted his journalism career after moving to Arizona. .

A native Oklahoman, Meek began his career in communications as a journalist at The Daily Oklahoman, Oklahoma City; and later at The San Angelo, TX, Standard -Times and Syracuse, NY, Post-Standard. During undergraduate study at the University of Oklahoma he was editor of The Oklahoma Daily.

Between career work in journalism and politics, Meek spent two years as Manager of the Community Development and International Relations departments for the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce at its national headquarters in Tulsa.

Saturday Evening Post cover for issue with JMM featured in article about Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME) running for president. Foto taken about two days after the Cuban missile crisis was resolved when JMM accompanied her to visit the Navy base at Guantanamo.

John, representing U.S. Sen. Robert S. Kerr (D-OK) with Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME) flew on the Secretary of the Navy’s private plane to the U.S. Navy Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba two days after the Cuban Missile Crisis ended. Purpose of the trip was to review the Navy and Marine responses had the U.S. gone to war with the Soviet Union over its missiles in Cuba being aimed at targets in our country. The photo taken with Sen. Smith and the top Marine commanders was used in a Post article about the possibility she would run for president in 1964.

“All dependents had been evacuated to the U.S. and virtually every square foot of the base was covered with Marine pup tents, John recalls. “Guantanamo Bay was so full of warships I could have walked deck to deck from one side of the bay to the other. The senior officers assembled there were not pleased they had not been able to invade the island and get rid of Castro.” (See John’s remembrance column on the trip in his latest book, “I Might Just Be Right.”)

With the return of the Democrats to the White House in 1961, Meek went to Washington as press secretary to U.S. Sen. Robert S. Kerr, who had just become chairman of the Senate Aeronautical & Space Sciences Committee.

Kerr, possibly the most powerful member of Congress in the last century, during the 1961-62 session was the leader in passing such monumental legislation as authorization for NASA to send manned spacecraft to the moon, the Communications Satellite Act and the Trade Act of 1962. Communications Satellite Act and the Trade Act of 1962

In May, 1961, a few months after joining Senator Kerr’s staff, Meek had an unusual experience at the White House after writing the first draft of a space program speech for President Kennedy the day after he had proposed the lunar project in a speech before a Joint Session of Congress.

Kerr died of a heart attack on January 1, 1963, and Meek spent the next two years as press secretary and legislative assistant to his successor, J. Howard Edmondson , who had been Oklahoma’s youngest governor. .

LBJ cabinet room meeting

President Johnson did listen to others concerning the outcome of the Vietnam War. At this meeting in the White House Cabinet Room he went around the table getting everyone’s opinion. John is on the right near the door to the Oval Office.

After Edmondson’s defeat in the U.S. Senate primary in May, 1964, Meek worked with the Young Citizens for Johnson-Humphrey and later as an assistant in the 1964 Democratic National Convention press office In Atlantic City.

After the 1964 election, Meek served President Lyndon B. Johnson in numerous roles including press assistant for the 1965 Presidential Inaugural, political speechwriter and as a part of the Congressional relations team that passed the Great Society Program. President Lyndon B. Johnson

At the Democratic National Committee, Meek served as Special Assistant to the Chairman, Director of Congressional Relations and editor of The Democrat - the party’s national newspaper.

Leaving on another campaign trip around New York State during Bobby Kennedy’s U. S. Senate race, RFK and John (with sun glasses) are at LaGuardia’s private terminal to board the “Caroline,” named after JFK’s daughter.

In the spring of 1967, Meek was assigned as the chief staff member for the DNC’s 1968 Convention Site Selection Committee. After Chicago was selected as the host city a few months later, he was asked to take the position of planning coordinator for the most controversial national political convention in this country’s history.

Meek’s move back to the private sector was joining the Edelman public relations firm as a vice president based in Chicago. But Meek soon began building a Washington, DC, office for Edelman, which became one of the largest and most respected in the nation’s capital. In time he became en executive vice president for Edelman and president of Edelman International Corporation.

During 12 years with Edelman, some of Meek’s achievements heading an outstanding staff included:

	Saving seatbelts in all vehicles after the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a rule eliminating this proven occupant restraint system in favor of airbags beginning with 1974 models. According to an Associated Press story July 15, 2002, in the Arizona Daily Star, a new study found that just from 1995 to 2000 the lives of more than 4,000 teenagers were saved by seatbelts.
	Directing the legislative and public relations effort to lift the arms embargo against the Government of Turkey, a major NATO ally and strong friend of the U.S. before, during and since Operation Desert Storm. Former President Jimmy Carter has said lifting the arms embargo was one of the major foreign policy victories during his Administration.

Associated Press Sunday feature story on JMM's lobbying and PR

success in getting U.S. landing rights for the British/French

Concorde SST.

During a long fight with Congress over U.S. landing rights for the British/French Concorde SST airliner, John led the legislative and public relations effort leading to success during the Carter Administration.

Leading the public relations and legislative program to obtain U.S. landing rights for the British/French Concorde, a supersonic airliner.

Kenneth Owen, a former editor of Aerospace America, has written the most definitive account of the “behind the scenes” battle to get U.S. landing rights for the Concorde in his book, Concorde and the Americans. In the preface Mr. Owen writes, “Eventually the crucial fight for U.S. approval (of the Concorde to provide service to American airports) was won, and the aircraft survived. If the fight for approval had been lost - and that could have happened at a stroke had Congress so decided - the Concorde would not have survived.

The Concorde U.S. landing rights and Turkish embargo successes were especially significant to Meek for another reason. As a presidential candidate in 1976, Jimmy Carter was firmly on the record as being opposed both to the Concorde landing rights in the U.S. and lifting the arms embargo.

Among his successes at Hartz/Meek International, Inc. was countering charges by WUSA-TV, the CBS affiliate in Washington, that those who built the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall were guilty of numerous misdeeds including financial and other improprieties.

Young Guns

Working as a volunteer in the Clinton-Gore 1992 presidential campaign and later in the transition, John, standing with George Stephanopoulos and later press secretary Dee Dee Myers, watches a news conference with Clinton, Gore and the Democratic party leaders in Congress at the old statehouse in Little Rock. John was amused by the “Young Guns” headline because he was neither young nor a “gun.”

Meek’s last major project for HMI, Inc. before moving to Arizona was helping the VVMF create a high school curriculum, called Echoes From the Wall, on the Vietnam War era (1959-75). VVMF in the fall of 1999 provided this curriculum without cost to every high school in America. Along with partial responsibility for developing the curriculum and online materials, Meek produced the introduction by Walter Cronkite for the Teach Vietnam program Web site.

In a television documentary called “Red Ink Nightmare: Uncle Sam’s Wasteful Ways, directed by John’s partner Jim Hartz, he played the role of an Air Force general in charge of Pentagon procurement.

Among major recognition Meek has earned in his career are four Silver Anvils from the Public Relations Society of America (the highest recognition given by the organization).

The University of Oklahoma’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications also presented Meek with a Distinguished Service Award at its 75th anniversary observance.

Jan Scruggs at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall

After Jan Scruggs, founder and president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, at The Wall, conceived the idea of a memorial for the fallen warriors of the Vietnam War in 1981, John signed on as a public affairs advisor – a role he still fills 26 years later as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund prepares to observed the 25^th anniversary of The Wall’s dedication on Nov. 13, 1982. (John's photo of the wall at sunrise, below, right.)

From 1983 to 1991 John was a partner with Jim Hartz in Hartz/Meek International, Inc., a communications consulting firm. Hartz, also an Oklahoman, hosted NBC’s “Today Show” with Barbara Walters and also served as the network’s top space correspondent and news anchor.

“Who Runs Washington”

book cover

Only one of five Washington public relations executives included in “Who Runs Washington,” along with three-time presidential counselor David Gergin, John says the major benefit was bringing in new business to his consulting firm.

His successes in Washington have been written about in books including Concorde and the Americans by Kenneth Owens, Japan Lobby by Hoshihira Komori and Toshio Obi, The Power Peddlers by Russell Warren Howe and Sarah Hays Trott and was one of only five public relations professionals, with David Gergen, listed in Who Runs Washington? by Michael Kilian and Arnold Sawislak.

At The American University in Washington he created a course in international public relations and, as an adjunct professor in the Kogod School of Business Administration, taught it five years as part of the master’s degree program. He also was a visiting lecturer at the University of Virginia’s Colgate Darden School of Business Administration at Charlottesville.

After moving from Washington, DC, to the Tucson, Arizona, area in the fall of 1999, Meek taught journalism courses as a member of the adjunct faculty at Pima Community College in 2000-2001.

During his career he has been listed in Who’s Who in Advertising, Who’s Who in Finance and Industry, Who’s Who in the East, Jane’s Who’s Who in Aviation and Aerospace and Who’s Who in the World.

Meek was graduated with a BA in journalism at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, and an MA in communication at Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY.

Korean War

Lt. Don Smith (left) of San Angelo, TX, a platoon leader with Baker Company, 1^st Battalion, 7^th Regiment, 1^st Marine Division, with John on the M:LR (front line) in the winter of 1951-52 during the Korean War. “Lt. Smith was my favorite boss in Korea and a good friend,” says John. “It’s not fun living in a hole in the ground with people who aren’t good company.”

After high school Meek worked a year then spent five years on active duty with the U.S. military. During the Korean War he served in combat as a Navy medical corpsman with the 1st Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force. Later he served with the 120th Medical Battalion, 45th Infantry Division, Oklahoma’s National Guard.

Meek is a member of the American Alpine Club and the U.S. Tennis Association. In 2000 and 2001 he qualified to compete in the NASTAR National Ski Racing Championships in his age group (60-70) at Beaver Creek, Colorado.

In 2004, Meek was one of three nominees for the American Alpine Club’s prestigious Literary Award. .

In Green Valley he has served on the boards of the Greater Green Valley Community Education & Arts Center and the Friends of the Pima County Public Library there.

When Time Magazine did its cover story on Washington lobbying in 1978, John was the only public relations executive among thousands there to be included.

In the President’s Office just off the U.S. Senate chamber, John meets with Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) to talk about the upcoming floor vote to lift the arms embargo against the Government of Turkey. John still laughs about the cutline under this photograph. “I get in a Time Magazine cover story,” says John, “and they call me a ‘Turkey lobbyist.’”