Public relations pioneer William H. Baldwin was born September 17, 1891, in Saginaw, Michigan, and grew up in a family where working for the public welfare was a tradition. His father, William H. Baldwin, Jr. (William H. Baldwin dropped the III after his father's death in 1905), was a close advisor of Booker T. Washington and a trustee of Tuskegee Institute. His mother Ruth Standish (Bowles) Baldwin was a trustee of Smith College and a founder of the National Urban League. Roger N. Baldwin and Chester B. Bowles were two of his cousins. The family tradition of public service was continued by William H. Baldwin who worked actively in behalf of the American Museum of Immigration (member of the board), the National Urban League (trustee and honorary trustee, 1915-1980, and president, 1942-1947), Fisk University (trustee and trustee emeritus, 1923-1980), the Southern Education Foundation (member of the board, 1950-1980), the Foreign Policy Association, and a host of other organizations.
William H. Baldwin's early education was in private schools in New York state and at Andover. With the intention of carrying on the family newspaper tradition, he attended Harvard University and completed his course of study in only three years. During the school year 1912-1913 he attended the University of Wisconsin, returning to graduate from Harvard in 1913. The following year was spent abroad, and in 1914 he went to work as ship news reporter for the New York Evening Post. After three years with the Post Baldwin enlisted in the navy and served as a press censor during World War I in Key West.
Upon the completion of his naval service, Baldwin apprenticed with Thomas F. Woodlock, a public relations specialist with the American International Corporation. In 1922 Baldwin accepted an offer from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, to devote full time to fundraising, thereby establishing the first million-dollar endowment at a Negro college in the South.
Baldwin established his own public relations firm in 1926, and was joined by Brewster S. Beach in 1937. Maurice Mermey became a partner in 1939, and the firm operated as Baldwin, Beach, and Mermey. From 1942 until 1960 when the firm was dissolved it operated as Baldwin and Mermey. Among Baldwin's clients for varying periods up to 30 years were Coca-Cola, Hershey Corporation, International Nickel, R. N. Macy and Company, the Crusade for Freedom, the National Association of Broadcasters, and Scoville Manufacturing. Baldwin was also counsel to ad hoc committees formed to mobilize public support for three successive extensions of the Trade Agreements Acts and adviser to the federal trustee throughout the reorganization of McKesson & Robbins. Baldwin was a charter member of the National Association of Publicity Directors and chairman of its successor, the National Association of Public Relations Counsel.
Baldwin married Cecilia H. Brewster in 1916. Mrs. Baldwin founded the real estate firm Baldwin and Company, which she operated for more than forty years. The Baldwins were the parents of three sons, William H., Jr., Brewster, and George Lee. William H. Baldwin died May 19, 1980 in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.
