Richard Frisbie

Starting as a writer and editor for the Chicago Daily News, Frisbie has served as editor of Chicago magazine and Chicago creative director of such well-known advertising agencies as Cunningham & Walsh and Campbell-Ewald. His consulting services encompass the whole field of communications from sales promotion to serious journalism.

Trade books by Richard Frisbie

• 1963 (and 2001): The Do-It-Yourself Parent (co-author with Margery Frisbie)
• 1964: Family Fun and Recreation
• 1965: How to Peel a Sour Grape: an Impractical Guide to Successful Failure
• 1968: Who Put the Bomb in Father Murphy’s Chowder?
  
• 1969: It’s a Wise Woodsman Who Knows What’s Biting Him
• 1975: Basic Boat Building (a Dolphin Book Club selection originally titled “Boat Building for Hands Who Are All Thumbs”)
• 1998: Daily Meditations for Busy Grandpas

Marcquis annuals written and edited by Richard Frisbie

• 1976: Bicentennial Biographies
• 1977: Looking Back: 1877-1977
• 1978: Future Gazing
• 1979: Second Starts: It’s Never as Late as You Think
• 1980: Vanished Glory: Towns Where the Date is Always Yesterday
• 1981: The Lure of the Islands
• 1982: Legends That Came to Life
• 1983: Speculations for Starry Nights
• 1984: Epic Escapes and Rescues
• 1985: Winners and Losers
• 1986: Traces of Adventure
• 1987: Adventure: the Art of Living Dangerously
• 1988: Larger-Than-Life Americans
• 1989: Mansions Haunted by History
• 1990: Under the Farthest Horizon
• 1991: The Inconstant Earth
• 1992: Encore for the Gay ’90s
• 1993: 2003 and Beyond
• 1994: What’s for Dinner Tomorrow
• 1995: Health Care and Human Destiny
• 1996: Turning Points With a Twist
• 1997: The Day Lincoln Wasn’t Shot and Other Stories That
  Could Have Turned Out Another Way
• 1998: Where People of the Past Bring History to Life

Publishing Consultant

Richard Frisbie has created publication formats as consultant to R. R. Donnelley & Sons, the world’s largest printer, and worked with a number of publishers on both circulation and advertising promotion. He has edited magazines and newsletters sponsored by clients ranging from Chrysler Corporation and Capital Cities Communications to the Claretian Fathers and Brothers. He overhauled Traffic Safety magazine for the National Safety Council and edited it for two years. (He also wrote the circulation promotion copy.)

As the author of 400 magazine articles and seven books, he has appeared on local and national radio and television shows. His books have been reviewed in a wide range of publications, from Parents magazine to Business Week to The New York Times.

Advertising Consultant

During his big-agency days, he worked on many major accounts and won awards for both print and broadcast advertising. In recent years, he has served as a creative resource for advertising agencies and sales promotion companies as well as certain advertisers with special needs, including radio, TV and Web site content.

Public Relations Consultant

When McGraw-Edison merged with Studebaker-Worthington, Frisbie was called in to write a special publication explaining it all to the employees of both corporations. When Northern Illinois Gas became Nicor, Inc., he wrote the sound/filmstrip introducing the new logo to the board of directors. When Sears Roebuck wished to revive its traditional image, he wrote the scenarios for the illustrations used on the covers of the fall and the Christmas catalogs that year. These are examples of many special communications assignments for major clients. A series of public service television spots written and produced by Frisbie Communications for the Claretians played free in 125 cities. Frisbie helped organize and served initially as executive secretary of the National Satellite Cable
Association.

Public Servant

Frisbie has been president of the Illinois Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress; the Society of Midland Authors; the Arlington Heights public library; and the North Suburban Library System, a state-funded co-operative of libraries in the north and northwest suburbs of Chicago. He was re-elected in 2005 to his eighth term as an Arlington Heights library trustee. He served four terms as president.

The Illinois Library Association in 2004 named him trustee of the year and gave him the ILA Intellectual Freedom Award.