Edward M. Kirby

Colonel Edward M. Kirby (June 6, 1906 – 1974) was an American soldier and public relations officer. After graduating from the Virginia Military Institute he worked as a reporter at the Baltimore Evening Sun and briefly in investment banking. Kirby joined an advertising agency in 1930 and became public relations chief at radio station WSM-AM in 1933. He was appointed director of public relations at the National Association of Broadcasters in 1937 and moved to Washington, D.C.

Kirby was appointed as a civilian advisor to the U.S. Secretary of War in 1940 and the following year established the Radio Branch of the War Department's Press Relations Division. In 1942, he was appointed a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and was responsible for creating The Army Hour radio show. Kirby was attached to General Dwight D. Eisenhower's staff at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in 1944 and was responsible for coordinating all radio broadcasts associated with the invasion of Normandy. He worked on several military radio programmes for which he was awarded a 1944 Personal Peabody Award. He was promoted to colonel in 1945 and received the Legion of Merit and honorary appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. After the war, Kirby became a public relations consultant and co-authored Star-Spangled Radio, an account of the use of radio in World War II. He was recalled to active service during the Korean War, heading the Army’s Radio-TV Branch and creating The Big Picture television documentary series. He left the Army in 1953 and in later life worked as a public relations advisor to the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the People-to-People Foundation, and the United Service Organizations.