Tatham, Arthur E.
Arthur E. Tatham Soundex Code T350
New York Times Obit, Wednesday, September 11, 1985
Arthur E. Tatham, (1908-1985), co-founder of Tatham-Laird & Kudner, a Chicago-based Advertising Agency, died last Thursday, September 5, 1985. at Evanston Hospital, Evanston, Ill. He was 77 years old and lived in Wilmette, Ill..
Shortly after his discharge from the United States Navy with the rank of Commander in 1946, Mr. Tatham joined with J. Kenneth Laird Jr. to form Tatham-Laird Inc.. In 1965 the concern merged with the Kudner Agency. Today the agency is the 29th-largest in the United States, with offices in New York and San Francisco.
After graduation from Northwestern University, Mr. Tatham was in charge of advertising and merchandising for the Bauer & Black division of the Kendall Company. In 1938 he joined Young & Rubicam Inc as contact executive, becoming vice president in charge of the Chicago office and later supervisor of contact in the agency's New York headquarters.
He left the agency in 1944 to accept a commission in the United States Navy on the staff of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air). He later served as special assistant to the Under Secretary and the Secretary of the Navy.
Arthur E. Tatham leaves his second wife, Gertrude Lynds Tatham, nee: Gertrude Lynds, of Wilmette; two daughters, Judith Brewton, nee: Judith Tatham of Scarsdale, New York, and Jane Johnson, nee: Jane Tatham, of Glencoe, Illinois; a son, Jonathan Tatham, of Vienna, Illinois; a brother, Fred E. Tatham, of Bauxite, Arkansas, and 10 grandchildren.
Chicago Tribune Obit, Saturday, September 7, 1985
Arthur E. Tatham, 77, a Chicago advertising executive for almost 50 years, was co-founder and retired chairman of the executive committee of Tatham-Laird & Kudner, a Chicago-based advertising agency. He was a past Chicago Advertising Man of the Year and former board chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies.
Services for Mr. Tatham, a resident of Wilmette, will be held at 11 a.m. Monday in Christ Church, 784 Sheridan Rd., Winnetka. He died Thursday, September 5, 1985, in Evanston Hospital.
"He and Ken Laird started with a few dollars and a lot of ideas about people, about advertising and its role in business, about marketing, about creativity and how to encourage and direct it, about ownership and how to share it and about clients and how to serve them," former agency chairman Jerome Birn said.
The agency, which Mr. Tatham and Laird formed in 1946, now is the 29th largest in the country, with offices in New York and San Francisco in addition to its Chicago headquarters.
Mr. Tatham once expressed his philosophy as, "It`s better to add and extend than to tear up and change." His firm ran a controversial ad in Advertising Age in 1962 criticizing awards for advertising, explaining that "really superior" campaigns rarely win awards.
Mr. Tatham, a native of Webster, Iowa, graduated from Northwestern University in 1925. He went to work for Bauer and Black and was placed in charge of its advertising and merchandising. He held the position until 1938, when he was made a contact executive and placed in charge of the Chicago office for Young & Rubicam Inc.
From 1944 to 1946, he was in the Navy, where he was on the staff of the deputy chief of naval operations (air) and subsequently special assistant to the undersecretary and secretary of the Navy.
He and J. Kenneth Laird Jr. began their agency with "no signed clients."
But in 1955 it became the smallest agency ever chosen by Procter & Gamble to handle an account.
His wife of 49 years, Angela Tatham, died in 1980.
Survivors include his second wife, Gertrude Lynds Tatham; two daughters, Judith Brewton and Jane Johnson; a son, Jonathan Tatham; 10 grandchildren; and a brother, Fred E. Tatham.
