Frank Karel (1935-2009) was an advocate and pioneer in health and public interest communications. Karel focused on philanthropic communications as a way to drive social change.

Early life and education

Frank Karel was born on August 30, 1935, in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

. He served in the Texas Air Force from 1954 to 1958. In 1957 he married the late Graciela Guerrero in San Antonio, Texas. They were married for 44 years until her death in 2001. They had two daughters, Barbara Kendrick and Elizabeth Reynolds. He later married Betsy Karel. He graduated from the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

in 1961 and later received a master's degree in public administration from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

in 1983. In 1990, he was named an alumnus of distinction by the UF College of Journalism and Communications.

Career

He was a reporter for the

Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a List of communities in Miami-Dade County, Florida, city in western Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and the M ...

and

The Tampa Tribune ''The Tampa Tribune'' was a daily newspaper published in Tampa, Florida. Along with the competing ''Tampa Bay Times'', the ''Tampa Tribune'' was one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area. The newspaper also published a ''St. Pe ...

before working in communications. He worked with the

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

as the associate director for cancer communication as well as the associate director of public relations for

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

and

Johns Hopkins Hospital The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. It was founded in 1889 using money from a bequest of over $7 million (1873 mo ...

in Baltimore. He served two terms as the vice president of communications for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation from 1974 to 1987; and again in 1993-2001. In between his time at RWJF, he worked as vice president of communications for the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

. After he retired in 2001 he worked on memoirs and was an advisor to Burness Communications, a nonprofit public relations firm.

Legacy

Karel died at 74 years old on September 19, 2009, after a nine-year battle with prostate cancer in Washington, D.C. His wife, Betsy Karel, and chair to the Trellis Fund, provided a $2.0 million grant to UF creating the nation’s first endowed chair in public interest communications. The Frank Karel Chair in Public Interest Communications was created to field research and practice of public interest communications and strategies. Its goal is to define the field as a tool for advancing organizations’ missions and goals in public and nonprofit sectors. The grant allowed the department of public relations to recruit a practitioner to mentor and direct students who are preparing for careers in public service. The Frank Prize in Public Interest research was established in 2014 by the

in honor of Frank Karel.

References

External links

University of Florida Communigator, "In Memoriam" by Sarah A. Henderson

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karel, Frank 1935 births 2009 deaths American health activists People from Orlando, Florida