Penney, Pat

In 1966, Patricia Penney Bennett (known professionally as Pat Penney) became the first women to chair the Public Relations Society of America's (PRSA) Counselor's Academy, and she was the only woman to lead PRSA's first special interest group during the group's first two decades of existence.

At the 1965 Denver PRSA conference, Penney was nominated to become vice chair of the thenfledgling, 5-year-old group. She was then designated to become chair the following year. Male chauvinism so pervaded the practice at the time that a Detroit counselor rose to block Penney's nomination because she was a woman. Following a raucous discussion, the assembled members voted down the challenge. Penney's nomination was a milestone event in women's efforts to acquire greater prominence in the field.

Penney had served in 1965 as the first woman president of PRSA's Los Angeles chapter. She later became PRSA's national secretary in 1969.

A 1948 journalism graduate of the University of Kansas, Penney began her public relations career in the publicity department of Jerry Fairbanks Production in Hollywood and later became assistant news bureau director at the California Institute of Technology. She later became account director at the Harry Bennett agency and manager of corporate accounts for Communications Counselors, a subsidiary of McCann-Erickson.

She became a business partner with Harry Bennett, whom she married, and was president of Penney & Bennett, Inc. in Los Angeles from 1960 to 1973. The firm was a leading consultant in the emerging field of investor relations. Its prestigious client list included Prudential Insurance Company and Union Bank of California.

Following a brief stint as vice president of corporate relations at Summit Health, Ltd., in 1976 Penney opened her own firm, Pat Penney Public Relations, which she operated until the time of her death. Clients included her former employer, Summit Health, and leading Los Angeles financial institutions, consulting firms, charities, and philanthropic organizations.

Penney was active in and received awards from a variety of professional, business, and civic groups. From 1974 to 1988, she taught public relations part-time at the University of Southern California School of Journalism (now Annenberg School of Communications), where a public relations scholarship is established in her memory.