Claire Harrison, Leading San Francisco AD/PR Exec In ‘70s and ‘80s, President of CHA/Claire Harrison Associates, Succumbs to Illness
SAN FRANCISCO – One of San Francisco’s most prominent and highly awarded female ad/PR executives from the late ‘60s through the 1980s, Claire Harrison, died of cancer on December 5 at the age of 77. As president of CHA/Claire Harrison Associates, Ms. Harrison was highly recognized for her 30 years of creative advertising and news-making public relations work in real estate, entertainment, hospitality, food and professional services. During the mid-eighties, her firm was listed among the largest independent public relations agencies in the Bay Area. CHA was also a long-time member of the American Association of Advertising Agencies and ranked by AdWeek as one of the top 50 independent ad agencies on the West Coast.
Ms. Harrison’s celebrated clients included Walt Disney/Touchstone Pictures, The Gap, Paramount Pictures, KQED, Drexel Heritage Home Furnishings, Liquor Barn, Narsai’s Restaurant and Catering, Square One Restaurant, Logo Paris Fashion Eyewear, Ramada Inns, Schlage Lock Company, San Francisco State University, the City of Emeryville, the City of Benicia and Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. Her firm won the Public Relations Society of America’s 1981 Silver Anvil Award, the highest attainable award in the public relations profession, for Best Community Relations Program.
Early in her career, Ms. Harrison helped promote and gain national recognition for “Five Easy Pieces,” “Last Picture Show” and “Easy Rider” for Columbia Pictures; “Grease,” “Saturday Night Fever,” “Heaven Can Wait” and “King Kong” for Paramount Pictures; and “Scenes from a Marriage,” “Pumping Iron” and “Seven Beauties,” among many others for a host of independent producers. Her firm worked with Francis Ford Coppola, and for eight years, Ms. Harrison represented a satirical revue called “The Committee,” founded by alums of The Second City in Chicago, which became a San Francisco institution during the ‘60s.
In real estate marketing, Ms. Harrison represented a who’s who of developers, architects, general contractors and commercial real estate brokerages that helped build contemporary San Francisco. Those clients included Vintage Properties, Gerson Bakar Associates, Perini Land & Development, Prometheus Development, Urban West, Rouse & Associates, Tishman Speyer, Pacific Union, Broadmoor Homes, Galleria Park Hotel, Cathedral Hill Hotel, Handlery Union Square Hotel, Fuller Commercial Brokerage, Dillingham Construction, Charles Pankow Builders, HOK Architects and KMD Architects.
As a result of serving so many real estate-related clients, Ms. Harrison came to know and count as friends and references many planning commission members, city officials and civic leaders from both San Francisco and other communities throughout the Bay Area.
According to retired Judge Quentin Kopp, who served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and as a member of the California State Senate, Ms. Harrison was a highly respected marketing consultant during the rapid pace of commercial and residential real estate growth in the San Francisco Bay Area during the ‘70s and ‘80s. “She was uncommonly bright and embodied the highest qualities of assertive and progressive feminist thinking of the day while always congenial and charismatic in her delivery,” said Judge Kopp. “She was influential and persuasive because it was obvious that what she had to say was smart, intuitive and insightful.”
Ms. Harrison was born in Manhattan and was a graduate of Connecticut College before moving to San Francisco. In 1994, she began a new career as a marriage and family psychotherapist after closing her marketing communications agency and returning to school to earn a master’s degree from JFK University, a doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Center for Psychological Studies and specialized training in Psychoanalytic Studies for private practice.
Ms. Harrison leaves her husband Erik Ambjor; son Stephen Harrison and wife Susan Freier, daughter Martha Dehnow and husband Iraj; three grandchildren, Arian, Zachary and Shayda; stepchildren Larry Reed & Rebecca Rosenberg; step-grandchildren Rachel and Sarah; and a sister Susan Hallman. A private memorial service for family and close friends will celebrate Ms. Harrison’s life Friday, January 20 in San Francisco.
REAL ESTATE OPENINGS, UNVEILINGS, DEDICATIONS
- San Francisco Center (now Westfield, for developer Sheldon Gordon)
- Stanford Shopping Ctr., Napa Town Ctr., Corte Madera Town Ctr., Century City, Stonestown Shopping Center (for architect John Field)
- Golden Gateway Commons, 160 Spear Street, Vintage Park, Vintage Club/Indian Wells (for developer Vintage Properties)
- 101 Lombard, Levi’s Plaza, Moscone Convention Center (for HOK Architects and developer Gerson Bakar)
- Galaxy Theatre, Two Rodeo, Montgomery Washington Tower, Gift Center (for KMD Architects)
- Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View, Delancey Street (for Apersey Construction)
- 455 Market Street
- Monadnock Building
