THE DMA RECOGNIZES THE PASSING OF INDUSTRY LEGEND AND DMA HALL OF FAME MEMBER JOAN THROCKMORTON

THE DMA RECOGNIZES PASSING OF INDUSTRY LEGEND

NEW YORK, MARCH 7, 2003 - The Direct Marketing Association this morning was saddened to learn of the passing of Joan Throckmorton yesterday following a long illness. Ms. Throckmorton, who was inducted into The DMA Hall of Fame in 1997, was a respected direct marketing consultant, mail order innovator, direct mail creative expert, teacher, speaker and author, whose clients included leading consumer publishers, manufacturers and service companies.

"Yesterday, the direct marketing industry suffered a great loss with the passing of Joan Throckmorton," said H. Robert Wientzen, president & CEO, The DMA. "Joan's contributions to the industry were significant and her pioneering spirit served as an inspiration to others in the industry. She was truly an industry legend."

Throckmorton had been associated with such major publishers as Time, Inc., Doubleday & Company, Inc. and American Heritage. While at Time Inc., she was associated with Life magazine where she helped introduce the first major Time Inc. book, The Life Picture Cookbook. She also worked on Sports Illustrated as circulation promotion manager, and later became assistant to the chairman of the board at Time Inc.

In 1970, Throckmorton formed Throckmorton & Associates, a full-service direct response agency. Handling significant direct marketing projects for a variety of clients in consumer publishing, merchandising and services and in education and manufacturing, Throckmorton’s clients included General Electric, McGraw-Hill Publications Company, AT&T, Citibank, Doubleday Book Clubs, Rodale Press, Inc., Time Inc., and several cable television systems.

Beginning in 1970, Throckmorton was one of the first women to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the Direct Marketing Association (The DMA) and the first woman to serve as a member of its executive committee and the long-range planning committee. She also served as one of the chairmen of the early DMA councils, was chairman of the Hall of Fame Committee and was an International ECHO Award committee member.

Throckmorton was one of the founding members of Women’s Direct Response Group and was a member of Women’s Forum, Inc. Throckmorton wrote a monthly column on direct mail in DM News and often lectured before such organizations as the Practising Law Institute, American Management Association and The DMA’s annual conferences. Her public seminar and book titled Winning Direct Response Advertising: How to Recognize It, Evaluate It, Inspire It, Create It, have guided and inspired more than 3,000 promising direct marketing professionals over the years.

In addition, Throckmorton was selected as one of the top 100 Corporate Women in America by BusinessWeek magazine and was named the Direct Marketing Woman of the Year by the Women’s Direct Response Group, Inc.

A memorial service will be held at the Pound Ridge Community Church in Pound Ridge, NY on Saturday, March 22 at 11:00 A.M.

###

RSS Subscription