Adamson & Associates
(Bingham Public Relations)
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This page last updated on August 3, 2024.
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Bingham Photos
For many years Utah Copper and Kennecott had its own on-staff photographers and photography department. The photographers were in later years working out of the mine engineering office at the Arthur concentrator. By 1983, the photography staff had been reduced to just one person, and the collection of original negatives and prints were kept in a row of ten four-drawer file cabinets.
The Arthur mill was closed in 1984, as part of the general shutdown of operations in 1984-1985 when over 4,000 employees were laid off. The buildings at Arthur were demolished in the two or three years leading up to 1991. There have been rumors that with the demolition of the Arthur engineering office, the entire collection of photographs and negatives was very close to being sent to the company landfill on the north side of the Magna tailings pond.
But these were just rumors, with knowledgeable persons reporting that the ten four-drawer file cabinets from the Arthur engineering office were moved to the mine office at Copperton. In addition, the "collection" has been described as consisting of about 25 to 30 storage boxes, plus two hard drives containing thousands of digital images. Then in later years, these same persons have reported that the collection was later turned over to Kennecott's public relations firm, W. S. Adamson and Associates.
A bit of research in online newspapers finds that Adamson has been doing newspaper and television advertising work for Kennecott since about 1950 (when W. S. Adamson opened his advertising agency), either as the direct representative, or as consultants. They were largely responsible for the Kennecott Neighborhood Theatre, a weekly movie broadcast on Sunday nights on KTVX Channel 4, and sponsored solely by Kennecott.
Bruce Whitehead joined Adamson & Associates in about 1966 as one of the company's principals. Prior to that he had been active in the local Salt Lake City television markets. By 2004, Bruce Whitehead was president and owner of Adamson. At Adamson, Bruce Whitehead and Ron Christensen were the keepers of the flame for Kennecott historical items, with Ron Christensen serving as Creative Director at Adamson. Bruce and Ron, and Louis Cononelos were largely responsible for the opening of the Magna museum in 1993-1995.
No information has yet been found concerning the status of the materials held by Adamson & Associates after it was shut down in 2014. Bruce Whitehead passed away in December 2018.
There have been rumors that all of the materials held by Adamson & Associates were transferred to University of Utah Special Collections, but as yet this information has not been confirmed.
W. S. Adamson & Associates
The following comes from the March 17, 2005 issue of the Magna Times newspaper.
It was on March 1, 1950 that W.S. (Bill) Adamson and his partner Howard Buchman founded a public relations and advertising company in Salt Lake City. To a very large degree, W.S. Adamson and Associates has survived in a highly competitive profession for more than a half-century because the company received its initial boost in 1950 from a mining company, Kennecott Copper Corporation, said present owner and president Bruce Whitehead.
He explained that it was Bill Adamson who created Kennecott's corporate public relations policies and guidelines. and it was Adamson and Associates that helped implement many of the facets of those groundbreaking strategies, thus establishing a solid professional relationship that continues today with Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation.
Mr. Adamson died in 1974 and his widow, LaVerne, became owner and president until her retirement in 1985. In 1984, Mr Whitehead and his partner, Robert Alkire, retired PR Director for Kennecott's Utah Copper Division, purchased the company from Mrs. Adamson. Upon the death of Mr. Alkire in 1988. Mr. Whitehead became the sole owner and president.
The following comes from the September 19, 1989 issue of the Deseret News newspaper.
W.S. Adamson and Associates, a Salt Lake City public relations and advertising company founded in 1950, after 22 years in the Kennecott Building has moved its office to the First Commerce Center, 175 W. 200 South, according to Bruce Whitehead, president.
He said the move was made to provide more efficient office and production space for the firm and also to obtain covered parking for employees and clients. The new office has art and sound production operations, a conference room and four large offices custom designed to serve the company's growing needs, he said.
Adamson & Associates corporate registration with the State of Utah expired on December 26, 2014. It had been most recently renewed on November 6, 2013.
Bruce Whitehead
"Bruce D. Whitehead, a native of Statesville, North Carolina, is president and owner of W. S. Adamson and Associates, a pioneer public relations firm in Salt Lake City. The company was organized in 1950 by the late W. S. "Bill" Adamson to serve the public relations and public affairs needs of Kcnnecott Copper Corporation. The firm still provides public communications services to Kennecott Utah Copper and other Kennecott companies. Whitehead holds a BA degree in communications from Quincy University. He joined Adamson in 1966 after 20 years as an on-the-air personality; as producer and director with Illinois, Idaho, and Utah radio and television broadcasters; and of service with the Armed Forces Radio Service in Austria. His career encompasses 59 years of managing and supervising public relations, public affairs, and general communications programs for a variety of local, regional, national, and international clients. He acquired ownership of Adamson and Associates in 1989." (From the Ground Up: A History of Mining in Utah)
Bruce D. Whitehead (1929-2018)
Bruce Davis Whitehead Jr., age 89, passed away December 18, 2018 in his Cottonwood Heights home. He was born May 14, 1929 to Bruce Sr. and W. Bernice Fuller Whitehead in his mother's hometown of Statesville, North Carolina.
In September 1951, he began a six-month US Army basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky. He was assigned to Occupation Forces on Salzburg, Austria where he continued his broadcast career for 18 months with the Blue Danube Network of the Armed Forces Radio Service.
In September 1953, he separated from the Army and returned to Quincy, Illinois. He joined the radio and TV staffs of WTAD and KHQA-TV. In 1957, he relocated to Boise, Idaho to work for KDOI Radio and TV.
He found himself in Salt Lake in 1960 working at KALL, KLUM, and KUTV for the next six years. In 1969, he changed careers by joining the Salt Lake City advertising and public relations firm W.S. Adamson and Associates where he remained until his retirement in 2014. During this period, he provided a wide range of services for the PR Department of Kennecott Utah Copper and Kennecott operations in New Mexico and corporate New York headquarters.
Robert Alkire
Robert F. Alkire passed away on December 25, 1988. At the time of his death, at age 59, he was was executive vice president of W.S. Adamson and Associates Inc., a Salt Lake City public relations and advertising firm. He attended the University of Montana School of Journalism, and later worked for various daily newspapers in Utah. He also worked for The Associated Press in Salt Lake City and Boston. In 1962, he joined the Utah Copper Division of Kennecott as a public relations representative and later became director of public relations for Kennecott's Nevada Mines Division in Ely, Nevada, and the Utah Copper Division until 1984, when the entire division was essentially shut down. He was the last public relations guy at Kennecott; all subsequent positions have been "community affairs" and "investor relations."
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