Toby E. Rodes
Toby E. Rodes (25 October 1919;
Personal life and family
Toby E. Rodes' father, Charles A. Rosenthal, a banker and businessman, restructured the Phillip Holzmann AG in Frankfurt after the global economic crisis of 1928. He was a 3rd generation American with German and Hungarian roots and studied law in Munich. Works of Toby‘s American grandfather, a world-famous painter of his time, can be found in many museums in the United States. His often published Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach's family has marked permanently our vision of the composer.
Toby E. Rodes' mother, Olivia Veit, came from a rare union between a noble English family with an old German-Jewish one. Before her marriage, she was a celebrated German actress. Cultural diversity and multilingualism were taken for granted in the Rosenthal family.
In 1934, at the Lessing Senior High School in Frankfurt a biology teacher made an anti-Semitic speech in front of Toby’s class. After this incident Toby left the school forever and went to French Switzerland, where he attended an English High School on Lake Geneva. He studied accounting at the
He was married to Dr. h.c. Sc W.E. Rodes-Bauer for 40 years. They lived in Basel.
Education and career
Toby E. Rodes returned to Europe in
From 1955 to 1966 he was a member of the management team of Knoll International, being responsible for their activities outside of North and Central America and CEO of the German, Italian, Swiss and Liechtenstein subsidiaries. Since then he regularly visits important interior design trade shows as a reporter for design magazines and participates from time to time in international design juries.
At the same time, from 1953 to 1975, he was a member of the executive committee of the board of Julius Klein Public Relations Inc, known for its strategic counseling concerning the solution of delicate international economic communications problems.
In 1966, he established the Toby E. Rodes Consultants Agency in Basel, a full-service agency acting as counselors and executing public relations programs, including controversial international activities.
Memberships
As a member of numerous national and international professional associations, particularly of the Swiss Public Relations Society, Toby E. Rodes devoted much time and effort to further future communications experts. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Art, London and a member of NPRG/BG IPRA, PRSA-Counselors Academy and Swiss Commission for Integrity in Commercial Communication.
Awards
On 1 December 2005 he was awarded the highest medal of the German State of Hesse for his service to democracy and reconstruction of Germany after World War II. He also was awarded:
- Médaille de la Reconnaissance française
- US Bronze Star Medal and other recognitions
- Croix de guerre avec étoile d‘argent, Luxemburg
Activities
His International Communications & Marketing Consultants agency is located in Basel, Switzerland. “Ein hessischer Amerikaner und die Stunde Null” (a Hessian American and the hour zero), a 43-minute TV film about his life produced in the “Zeitreise” series (A travel through times passed) by the Hessian State TV first showing on Dec.07.2006 and later twice by Phoenix TV. His books. “A Short Introduction to Public Relations” . Hohwacht-Verlag 1977.
References
- ^ "Zum Tod von Toby E. Rodes" (in German). Möbelmarkt. 30 April 2013. Archived from the original on 10 May 2013. Retrieved 29 May 2013.