Thank you for joining us to celebrate the legendary Doug Pinkham on his farewell tour!

Doug Pinkham is president of the Public Affairs Council, the leading international association for public affairs professionals. But that’s not what he set out to do.

When he was 10, Doug was determined to become the center fielder for the Cleveland Indians, one of the worst teams in baseball. He was a pretty good hitter when he started high school, but when the pitchers he was facing turned 17 and could throw 80 mph fastballs, Doug could no longer see what he was trying to hit.

Doug’s other life-long dream was to become a professional writer so he could monetize his odd sense of humor. When he was 11, he sent some humorous ideas and sketches to Hallmark Cards because he was convinced his greeting cards would be more hilarious than any of the others at the drug store. That was when Doug received his first rejection letter, a 3-word response that said, “Make them funnier!”

Doug attended the College of Wooster in Ohio, where he majored in English Literature because he knew there was a lot of money to be made in that field. While at Wooster, Doug edited the student newspaper and served as news director for the campus radio station. It was in that second job that Doug met his future wife, Diana Lutz of Mahwah, New Jersey, who was hosting a radio show. He tried and tried to impress her with his witticisms, but Diana was not exactly swept off her feet. In fact, she told him he was rather “squirrelly.”

Ah, but the story of their love affair didn’t end there! Once Doug stopped trying so hard, he apparently became less squirrelly and the two of them finally got together and were married in 1980. They have two upstanding and well-adjusted sons — David and Kyle — who have the same sarcasm gene that helped make Doug what he is today.

Doug was elected to head the Public Affairs Council in 1997 and is only the third president of the organization since it was founded in 1954. Under his leadership, the Council has done a lot of impressive things to benefit its members and serve society. But what Doug is most proud of is that he helped create a positive, creative and fun work environment for so many past and present Council staff members.

Before joining the Council, Doug was vice president of communications for the American Gas Association, a major trade association representing natural gas companies. Doug also did his best to make that job fun.

Now that Doug is getting on in years, he wears glasses and hearing aids. He often wonders if his parents had bought him glasses when he was 16, he would now be the retiring center fielder for the Cleveland Guardians.