Today's Featured Biography

 
David Voracek

After high school I attended Southern Illinois University. Carbondale, and then moved to Chicago to work in the advertising department of the Chicago Tribune newspaper. This allowed me to attend graduate school at Northwestern University, where I earned a Master of Science degree in journalism in 1968.”

That was the height of the Viet Nam War and I enlisted as an officer in the US Navy. I was assigned to the Naval Photographic Center in Washington, DC. My experience in theatrics at Alton High came in handy as I worked as a producer-director of training films. I even had walk-on parts in a couple of films.I completed my naval career as a Lieutenant Commander.

I then headed to New York’s Madison Avenue to work as an account executive at Young & Rubicam, one of the country’s top advertising agencies. One ad campaign I worked on was Tang breakfast drink. You may recall that was the brand the US astronauts drink up in space. Log Cabin Syrup and General Electric kitchen appliances were other accounts I was involved with.

While in New York City, I socialized with classmates Nancy Harris and Ann Goulding who were also starting their careers there. I had a knack for running into people I knew while walking around the city. One day I ran into Bill Jarrett, who had just arrived and was starting a career as a model but had no place to stay. Apartments were expensive and in short supply. It was not uncommon for “new arrivals” to get started by couch surfing with friends. Bill slept on my sofa for a while, until he could get settled.

I get bored easily, and I was tired of being confined to just one product or industry at a time. I moved back to the Washington, DC area to work as the advertising or marketing director of several companies in different industries.

In 1982, at the age of 36, I founded my own advertising agency, The Marketing Department. For the next 17 years I ran the firm and advised more than 400 clients including the American Red Cross (Washington headquarters), the Library of Congress, the US Chamber of Commerce, Entre’ computer stores, and the Washington-area Blue Cross & Blue Shield.

In the mid-90s I took up public speaking. I gave seminars on advertising and marketing around the Washington area and eventually at industry conventions across the country.

In my mid-50s I became a fund raiser and trade show director for The Urban Land Institute (ULI), a Washington-based educational group serving residential and commercial real estate land developers. In addition to traveling the country, I worked in London, Paris, and the far East to raise funds and recruit exhibitors for ULI conferences.

In 2005 ,I moved to St. Louis to help look after my elderly parents and to reconnect with is relatives in the area. I volunteered at senior homes as a Bingo caller and at the International Institute, where he tutored recent immigrants to America in English as a Second Language. In recognition of my volunteer work, in May 2012, Missouri Lt. Governor Peter Kinder named me a Senior Service Award winner

I briefly joined the Peace Corps but found that was not for me. in 2013, I became an Adjunct Professor in the School of Business at Lindenwood University, St. Charles, Missouri. I taught “Principles of Marketing” and “Principles of Business Management” classes until Covid 19 closed down the country. I decided to retire.

I keep busy in retirement. I became a BBQ Contest Judge. Thanks to Alton High classmate Barb Logan and her husband Jim Woodsmall I joined the Kansas City Barbecue Society, took their training class, and became a Certified Master BBQ Judge. During spring and summer, I travel the Midwest to officiate at small-town cook-offs

The theater is in my blood and I enjoy going to see live theater in St. Louis. Every few years I heads back to New York City to visit friends and see the latest Broadway dramas and musicals.

“I guess BBQ and theater are pretty tame vices. But really good Bourbon is also nice,” Dave added.

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