Charles Edmund Reilly Jr.

Mr. Reilly was born in Philadelphia on November 4, 1928, the son of Charles Sr. and the former Kathryn McHugh and grandson of H. Bart McHugh Sr., founder and longtime director of Philadelphia’s annual Mummers Day Parade. He graduated from St. Joseph’s College in 1950 and entered the Armed Forces, serving in the field artillery before earning his commission from OCS at the Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia. He was selected for training in the Medical Service Corps and was stationed with the U. S. Occupation Forces in Germany as an assistant battalion surgeon.

Upon his release from the military, he began a career in communications with the newly established TV Guide magazine in Radnor, Pennsylvania, and then in New York City. He later held management positions in New York with the advertising and public relations agencies Young & Rubicam, J. Walter Thompson, Ogilvy & Mather, and Hammond Farrell. In 1976 he founded In-Person Communications, a counseling firm that assists corporate leadership in North America and Europe. He retired from day-today operations at In-Person in November 2006 but served as chairman emeritus until the time of his death.

Mr. Reilly established and developed the first National Catholic Office for Radio & Television (NCORT), which served as the official liaison between the hierarchy and ABC, CBS, and NBC networks, the principal broadcasting companies at the time. Pope Paul IV appointed him a consultant to the Vatican’s office for the mass media and he was in Rome actively involved in the Charles Edmund Reilly, Jr. obit preparation of Communio et Progresso, the Holy See’s pastoral instruction on communications.

As a lieutenant colonel at the Valley Forge Military Academy & College, he provided communications and public relations expertise to the professional staff and the cadets from 1995 to 2003. During his earlier years in Manhattan, he was an adjunct professor at St. John’s University and for 30 years served as a member of the visiting committee for the communications department at Loyola University in New Orleans. In 2002 he earned a Master of Arts degree from Villanova University where he also lectured.

Mr. Reilly was elected to the Hall of Fame at Fort Benning in 1996 and was a past commander (PA) of the Military Order of Foreign Wars (MOFW), the nation’s oldest order of present and past military officers and their descendants. He was also a chevalier of the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem.

Charles Reilly, Jr. had been writing for newspapers since the late 1980s, first with The Suburban & Wayne Times and then for Main Line Life where his weekly column “Man About Town” led to a television show with that name at Radnor Studio 21, the cable television station serving suburban Philadelphia and beyond. He wrote an occasional column for MainLineMediaNews until his death.

He was a past member of the Friars Club and the Princeton Club, both in New York City, and The Union League of Philadelphia where he chaired the Armed Services committee. He was also a past member and governor of the Merion Cricket Club, Haverford, Pennsylvania. He was a member of the St. Davids Golf Club.

Mr. Reilly was predeceased by his parents, brothers Bart McHugh Reilly and Thomas F. Reilly II, son-in-law Louis F. McArdle, and two granddaughters, Caroline F. Bullock and Bryce McH. Williamson. He is survived by his wife, the former Joan Hunter Harvey, four children from his previous marriage to Lynn Alden Wanger: Lynn (John) Marshall, Susan McArdle, Kathryn (Allen) Williamson, and Charles III (Linda), and his brother James Fintan Reilly. He was stepfather to William (Michele) Harvey, Thomas (Angelee) Harvey, and Jeffrey (Breanna) Harvey. He is survived as well by 21 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.