Joe Epley

With a background that included service with the Army’s elite Green Berets, television journalism and a successful global public relations practice, Joe Epley retired to the North Carolina mountains to become a gentleman of leisure. But he couldn’t learn that avocation, so he began researching and writing about the American Revolutionary War in the Carolinas.

Epley is recognized internationally for his leadership in public relations. He served as president of the Public Relations Society of America and was a co-founder and global chair of the Worldcom Public Relations Group. The Charlotte Observer called him the “icon of Carolina public relations” when it announced Epley’s retirement and the sale of his public relations firm.

Among the honors he has received are the Gold Anvil, the highest award in the public relations profession for lifetime achievement, and the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, North Carolina’s highest award for citizens with noteworthy achievements. He is a member of the University North Carolina School of Journalism’s Public Relations Hall of Fame and the Defense Information School’s alumni Hall of Fame. He also received honors for helping to organize the Russian Public Relations Association during the waning days of the Soviet Union.

Currently is a member of the board of the Military Writers Society of America. Believing that everyone should give back to the communities in which they live, Epley served on the board of trustees of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation and the Thermal Belt Outreach Ministry.

In the corporate arena, he is a member of the board of directors for The Marketing Alliance, a publicly traded national insurance brokerage firm headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.

He and his wife of more than 50 years make their home near Tryon, North Carolina. They have two children and six grandchildren.