Alfred Fleishman

Who was Alfred Fleishman?

Alfred Fleishman, was co-founder, with business partner Robert Hillard, of Fleishman-Hillard, the St. Louis-based public relations firm that began in a rented room above a Woolworth’s store and has grown to become one of the world’s largest public relations agencies. In the process, Fleishman earned a reputation not only as one of the pioneers of public relations, but also as an author, educator, humanitarian, and champion of the state of Israel.

A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Fleishman was born June 16, 1905, and studied at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, before being inducted into the U.S. Army. As a major in the U.S. Army Air Corps, he spent World War II primarily as a Pentagon-based public information officer. He traveled to war-torn Germany in October 1945. Sent by the American Jewish Congress as a special consultant to the Secretary of Defense, he headed a survey committee that studied the psychological, economic and social needs of displaced people in Germany and Austria.