Bob Hope is the 2023 inductee into the PRSA Georgia Order of the Phoenix and Georgia Public Relations Hall of Fame at the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Hope, an esteemed veteran of the communications and marketing sectors in Atlanta and New York, has counseled many of the top corporate leaders in the world and participated in the planning of a variety of major events, including the Olympics, the Major League All-Star Game, the NBA All-Star Game, the Rotary International Convention, among others. Clients have included the top companies and organizations in the U.S.
He is active in the Atlanta community and serves on a variety of boards, including Covenant House Georgia, HOI, Wesley Woods Foundation, Atlanta Way 2.0, and the Georgia Music Accord. He serves on the Board of Councilors of the Carter Center and has served as an election observer in Nepal, Atlanta, and Zimbabwe, representing Carter Center.
Hope has been selected as a business legend by Atlanta Magazine in its annual selection of the 500 Most Powerful Atlantans and has been on the list of 100 Most Influential Atlantans in the Atlanta Business Chronicle. He was selected by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as Most Admired CEO.
He is an active member of the Rotary Club of Atlanta (the fourth largest Rotary club in the world) and is the only recipient in its 110-year history of the club’s four top awards – community involvement, Rotary involvement, international involvement, and hospitality. He is the only member of the Rotary Club of Atlanta to be selected Rotarian of the Year in the district and has received the highest award bestowed by the board of Rotary International, the Service Above Self Award. He was the emcee of the Rotary International Convention in Atlanta, attended by 40,000 Rotary members from around the world.
The Atlanta Hospitality Hall of Fame inducted him as a member in 2015, and he was the most recent recipient of the President’s Award of the Women’s Sports Foundation presented by Billie Jean King for his support of Title IX and equal educational opportunities for women and girls.
Each spring for the past 25 years, he has organized a trip of approximately 50 community leaders to travel to rural Honduras to build schools and work in medical clinics and small mountain villages. He participated in the forming of HAVE Foundation (Honduras Agalta Valley Education) to support the schools they’ve built and serves as the treasurer of HAVE. He also has organized three trips of leaders to visit the operations of Opportunity International in Nicaragua.
His professional career began with the Atlanta Braves, where he was named director of public relations soon after graduating from college. He was with the Braves when Hank Aaron broke the lifetime home run record of Babe Ruth. He later became publicist and promoter for Ted Turner and his various companies. He eventually became executive vice president of Burson-Marsteller (then the largest public relations agency in the world) in New York before returning to Atlanta to start his own agency.
He is author of two books – “We Could Have Finished Last Without You” about the early days of Ted Turner with the Braves, and “Greater Late than Never” about 125 people who achieved their success after age 50.
Bob is a widower with two adult daughters and four grandchildren.
We will honor Bob at the Awards Celebration in November.