University of Houston Names Jack J. Valenti School of Communication To Honor Its Esteemed Graduate

University of Houston Names Jack J. Valenti School of Communication To Honor Its Esteemed Graduate

HOUSTON, June 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The School of Communication at the University of Houston has been named to honor the late Jack Valenti, adviser to President Lyndon Johnson and head of the Motion Picture Association of America for nearly four decades.

Valenti, who died last year at the age of 85, was born and raised in Houston and was a graduate of UH (1946).

Plans to change the name to the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication were announced at the school's annual scholarship banquet.

"This is an important step to acknowledge Valenti's longstanding association with the University of Houston and the city of Houston," said Welcome W. Wilson Sr., chairman of the UH System Board of Regents. "Jack was the greatest communicator that I have ever known."

Valenti attended UH during the 1940s, working at Humble Oil during the day and pursuing his degree in business administration by taking evening classes. His enrollment was interrupted by WWII, during which he served as a B-25 pilot, but he returned to graduate in 1946. At UH, he worked on student newspaper and served as president of the Student Association and as vice chairman of Frontier Fiesta committee. Following graduation, Valenti headed the UH alumni organization and was appointed to the first Board of Regents when UH became a state university in 1963. He was honored by UH with its Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1952 and with an honorary doctorate in 2002.

In his memoir This Time, This Place, Valenti wrote, "The day I enrolled in the University of Houston was the most exalted day of my life ... If there had been no UH, I don't know what turn my life would have taken."

In 1963, Valenti went to Washington, D.C., to work as a special assistant to President Johnson during the Vietnam era. He became head of the MPAA in 1966 and held that position for 38 years. He was widely applauded as a commanding public speaker and a skilled lobbyist on behalf of the film industry's interests.

"Jack always seemed to know what to say and the best way to say it," Wilson said. "What, then, could be a better description of communications?"

Valenti co-founded the highly successful public relations and advertising executive firm Weekley & Valenti in 1952.

"As we improve the school's infrastructure and expand its scholarship opportunities, I am confident it will achieve the level of excellence and national recognition with which the Valenti name is synonymous," said Beth Olson, director of the School of Communication.

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Source: University of Houston

CONTACT: Eric Gerber of University of Houston, +1-713-743-8189 (o),
+1-281-627-2065 (c), egerber@uh.edu

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