Our very best wishes for your continued success in your new position,
and thanks again for your many contributions to our advertising in recent
months.
And so I left the “if I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere” city
feeling pretty good. During my time at J. Walter Thompson, my father had
brought his broadcast holdings up to fourteen stations with John
Babcock’s help, whose path had led him back to my father in 1964, as he
relates in the next chapter.
CHAPTER 12: ONE-ON-ONE
by John B. Babcock
There remains only one person who worked one-on-one with the late
Roy H. Park, and that has to be me, John B. Babcock. As I said, I was
acquainted with Roy back in the early ’40s when he often sought advice
from my father, H.E. “Ed” Babcock, out at our Inlet Valley farm,
Sunnygables. He hired me to write copy at the State Street offices of
Agricultural Advertising and Research for a few months before leaving for
WWII, and I started working there again after finishing my studies in
English and literature at Cornell after the war. My duties included projects
for the successful agricultural campaign during Thomas E. Dewey’s 1948
quest for the presidency which Park headed with help from my father, Ed
Babcock. Park proved that he had learned to communicate with farmers,
studied how they thought, and knew what was needed to motivate them.
When I was sent south to manage his Richmond, VA, Ag Research ad
agency office, for a year or so, my specialty there was ad ideas, copy and
effective communication with top management of our client, Southern
States Cooperative. That co-op was so similar to GLF with which I had
grown up, that I found it easy to carry out my duties. I had little to do with
Park personally except on visits back to Ithaca, when he would regale me
with his growing list of accomplishments. During this time, Southern
States’ marketing manager, T.K Wolfe, whose son Tom was later the
celebrated journalist and novelist in the white suit, gave me some lessons
about writing.
I left my Richmond position with Park when I returned to Ithaca in
1949 after my dad’s first heart attack. Famous for his writing and farm
economics expertise, Ed Babcock was serving on Avco Corporation’s
Board at the invitation of Victor Emanuel. Emanuel in turn provided solid
support during Dad’s chairmanship of the Cornell Board of Trustees. A
business magnate in his own right, Emanuel took charge of the finance
committee of Cornell’s board. Emanuel introduced me to the intriguing
