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Ray Werner
Year of induction: 2001
Bio:
The cherished word - "freedom" - seems to have more meaning when it is applied to Ray Werner. Freedom, Pennsylvania, was where he grew up in the happiest of homes, steeped in the virtues and values that have become so important to us all.
Ray graduated from Duquesne University and attended Yale School of Drama, majoring in playwriting. He began his advertising career at BBDO as a copywriter and later joined Ketchum, where he worked for 16 years, his last several as executive creative director and member of the executive committee and Ketchum board.
It is freedom that has let him unleash some of the greatest moments of creativity the advertising profession in this town has ever known.
His work won many awards, including ADDYs, Andys, N.Y. Art Directors Club, and a Clio. His accounts included H.J. Heinz, Rubbermaid, Westinghouse, C&P Telephone, Alcoa, National Geographic and others. He authored "You've Got a Friend in Pennsylvania" and wrote the song many people across the state can still hum.
And the nationally acclaimed TV commercial, "Margie Shumaker," for C & P Telephone, received all the accolades his profession could bestow on him.
In January 1986, the freedom to do his own thing took over his life. And Ray left Ketchum to pursue his vision of a first-rate creative agency, Werner Brother, Inc., which ranked in Pittsburgh's top 25 its first year. It started in the No. 7 Engine Company building in the Strip, an 1849 firehouse restored by Ray and his wife Susan. It was the first historically restored building in the Strip, and it won two architectural awards from the AIA. In '87, a special partnership was formed with John Chepelsky and the agency became Werner Chepelsky & Partners.
Throughout his career, Ray's sense of freedom extended beyond himself, to the people who worked with him, to the clients he served, to the people he mentored and to his family.
In January 1996, the agency was acquired by Bozell, and Ray stayed on as general manager. Bozell was bought by True North, which was later bought by Interpublic. Ray retired from the agency at the end of 2001. Today it's the Mullen agency, with many of the same people and clients and with its integrity and belief in ideas still intact.
Committed to the community, Ray has served on many of Pittsburgh's major boards. He currently serves on the boards of the AIA Foundation, Calliope (Pittsburgh's Folk Music Society), The Ireland Institute and IRETA. He is a member of the History Center's marketing committee and is president of the board of the Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theater (PICT).
His new adventure is Fumo Sancto (Italian for Holy Smoke), a pro bono idea and bread company (ray@fumosancto.com). Under that banner Ray is working as a writer, traveler, musician and breadbaker, one of his passions. His first passion, friend and companion in all of this is his wife Susan. They live in Point Breeze, where they raised their four children - Larkin, Brian, Brendan and Katie.
Ray has always had the gift of letting everyone who has been a part of his life have the freedom to chart their own destiny, while he gently steers them toward success after success.
Emerson said it well: " The only true gift is to give a portion of thyself." There is one man who continues to give that gift to everyone he comes in contact with every day.
That man is Ray Werner from Freedom, Pa.
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