Excellence in PR Bernie Vonderheide
Bernie Vonderheide
Bernie Vonderheide is truly a credit to the public relations profession. Over the years, he has earned the admiration and respect of his colleagues and, most significantly, members of the news media.
When Mr. Vonderheide came to the University of Kentucky in 1974, he set a goal to turn the UK Public Relations Department into an aggressive media relations and marketing organization. As chairman of the UK Press, Radio and TV Committee, Mr. Vonderheide arranged for the University to receive free radio and television advertising time in all broadcasting contracts. At the time, UK was the only university in the country doing this on a statewide basis. Every major television market and more than 100 radio stations across the state ran the University's messages.
Mr. Vonderheide was the halftime host on radio for all UK football and basketball games for 20 years. He did more than 800 halftime shows called "Campus Scene." It was the University's chance to reach thousands of Kentuckians with news about UK's academic accomplishments.
Even today, Mr. Vonderheide is best remembered for "Campus Scene." His work in other fields and as public relations director of the University still take a back seat to these halftime shows which were listened to with regularity by fans throughout Kentucky and many parts of the country. It is a bit ironic that this little bit of fame was in radio when all of Mr. Vonderheide's educational training and professional experience was in the print media.
Mr. Vonderheide also played a key role in the development of the annual Joe Creason Lecture series endowed by the Louisville Courier-Journal . In fact, Mr. Vonderheide managed the annual event along with helping his close friend and colleague at the time, Don Towles, create the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.
One of the most difficult challenges in public relations that Mr. Vonderheide encountered in his career at UK was the basketball scandal in the late 80s. Mr. Vonderheide was a member of a team of University executives led by UK President David Roselle who handled the UK response. This public relations effort worked and many UK alumni and fans came to better understand the problem and the solution. Mr. Vonderheide believes that, "the ending was what we wanted and the University was better off in its athletic programs because of the way we handled this problem."
Before UK, he held positions at the Courier-Journa l and The Louisville Times, including director of the newspapers' promotion and public service department and he was a columnist for The Louisville Times for two years. He also has been editor of farm magazines in Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana.
In retirement, Mr. Vonderheide has been an active advocate for nursing home reform. He serves on the board of the Nursing Home Ombudsman Agency of the Bluegrass. He also is president and founder of Kentuckians for Nursing Home Reform, a citizen's advocacy group.
His advocacy work helped form a task force on the state level to discuss quality long-term care and he single-handedly was able to get four bills to reform nursing home care introduced in the Kentucky General Assembly.
A graduate of the Indiana University School of Journalism, Mr. Vonderheide and his wife, Barbara, have four grown children and 10 grandchildren.
