Obituaries
Jay Rockey, Seattle World's Fair Promoter, Dies At 90
Rockey helped put Seattle on the map, showing the Space Needle and the Monorail to the world.
SEATTLE, WA - Public relations luminary Jay Rockey, who introduced the world to Seattle through coverage of the 1962 World's Fair, died last week at age 90. Rockey has been credited with making the World's Fair - originally called the 21st Century Exhibition - a success, and making the Space Needle and Monorail famous.
Born in 1928 in Olympia, Rockey began his career as a reporter for United Press International. He was hired in 1953 as a PR manager for Alcoa in New York, according to Rockey's website. He was offered the job of promoting the 1962 World's Fair during a trip home to Washington.
Rockey's biggest coup was getting Life Magazine to cover the World's Fair.
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"When Life magazine ran the cover photograph of the Space Needle, with untethered construction workers balanced 520 feet in the air on its rim, Rockey remembered it as a turning point," his obituary read.
Rockey opened his own PR firm, Jay Rockey Public Relations, after the World's Fair. The company was sold in 2000 to Hill and Knowlton.
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Rockey's family is asking that any memorial be made to the Jay & Retha Rockey Communication Excellence Endowment at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University.
Sad to hear about the death of the remarkable Jay Rockey, pr whiz of the Seattle World's fair. He put the fair on the map that put the city on the map. #Seattlelegends pic.twitter.com/hXvyuG7E61
— Mossback (@KnuteBerger) March 7, 2018
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