Smith, Rea

Rea W. Smith, APR (1918–1981), served the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) for 23 years—first as assistant to Shirley D. Smith, PRSA executive director, and her husband; then as vice president of administration in 1960; and finally as first woman executive vice president from 1975 to 1980.

In 1980, Smith became executive director of the Foundation for Public Relations Research and Education (now the Public Relations Foundation) until her death in 1981.

Her pioneering staff work for the national office of the PRSA included staff executive for judicial and grievance matters, for legal affairs, for committees on the development of PRSA's Code of Ethics, and for the Accreditation Boards, following the initiation of accreditation in 1962. She authored the organizational plan for establishing the International Accreditation Council, adopted in 1975.

Smith was born in Jamestown, New York, and began her career in public relations in the early 1940s. She was a TV talk show moderator and in Memphis, Tennessee, was one of the first women to produce political TV broadcasts. From 1946 to 1957, she and her husband were partners in Shirley D. Smith & Associates, a Memphis public relations firm.

Smith wrote many articles dealing with public relations and PRSA. She was treasurer of the Women Executives in Public Relations from 1971 to 1973, and a board member from 1977 to 1978.