Frank was a MENTOR!
Jack Fisher
Past Chairman, Frank J. Corbett, Inc.

Frank was a MENTOR! There are so many stories that have and will be told by literally hundreds of people who worked with Frank in the agency over those many years. I was lucky enough to be one of those whom he mentored. When I came to the Frank J. Corbett, Inc. Agency from New York in June of 1978, I was still wet behind the ears and in some ways clueless about how this agency and Chicago worked. Without Frank the success that I achieved over the years would have been greatly diminished.
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Frank Stories
Jerry Coamey
Senior Vice President, Group Creative Director

While I don't have a particular story about Mr. Corbett, I would like to share with his loved ones what a true gentleman he was. When I joined Corbett, Mr. Corbett was still coming to the office on a regular basis, and I must say that I was always impressed by how he would take the time to chat with me whenever we bumped into each other. He always had a smile on his face and a kind word to say. And, of course, he was always impeccably dressed, setting a high standard for those of us in the creative department. Mr. Corbett, you will be missed.

Frank J. Corbett
John Scott
Executive Vice President, Chief Creative Officer, 2000-2008

For a long time, Frank Corbett was just a name to me. That is, for most of the first thirty years or so I spent in the advertising business in Chicago before I joined, in April 2000, the agency Mr. Corbett had founded some forty years earlier. It is fair to say that the Corbett name was one of the reasons I ultimately joined the agency; it was a name that I had come to associate with quality, success, and innovation, by virtue of representing one of the pioneering companies in the burgeoning field of healthcare advertising. I had no direct experience with the company, but the sense I had of the brand name was all good–and that was validated by the fact that the agency had been acquired by another great brand name, when it became part of Omnicom, the world's most successful communications company, in the late seventies.
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In Adoration of Mr. Frank Corbett
Don Levey
Photographer

I had the distinct pleasure of knowing Frank for over thirty years. He would always ask me with complete sincerity and caring if everything was going well. There were a number of years that I was shooting all of the corporate photos for the Corbett Agency. One of the most memorable photo sessions was with Mr. Corbett. His gentlemanly ways rang true with every exposure...and we laughed and kidded as we always did..."in a professional manner of course." The photo that's being used in memorial of Mr. Corbett is one of the photos that I had the pleasure shooting of him. It's how I will always remember Frank, being the warm quality person that he was. His fond memory will always resonate warmly with me.

My recollections of Frank J. Corbett
Mark Stinson
Worked with Frank J. Corbett 1985-1996

As a young copywriter, I had the privilege of working on the Westwood Pharmaceuticals account – and the precedents of Mr. Corbett loomed large. His influence on the creative may have been indirect at that time, but I knew from his past work what he thought Westwood brands should look and feel like. Plus, because he had crafted the agency's acquisition by BBDO, I knew that Mr. Corbett would want the "consumer" and the patient to be an important focus of our ideas, our tactics, and our media.
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Thinking about Frank
Dirk Wales
Collaborated with Frank J. Corbett early in the history of the agency

pragmatic
prag•mat•ic adj
1. more concerned with practical results than with theories and principles

I had never heard the word "pragmatic" used so often and well as when I was around Frank Corbett. Here was a man who invented his own advertising agency, had a list of blue chip clients the envy of every agency in Chicago, and owned one of the best creative departments in the city. Yet, he wanted to be practical and realistic (read: honest) and deliver results.
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