Remembrance: My Very Important Friend Chuck Piper

Friday, May 21, 2021 - 9:45am

By Stacy C. James

We all have friends who take walks through our lives. Some stop and visit for many years. Others are just waiting to go somewhere else. But, those who are in our lives for the long run, or walk, often end up being some of the most important and interesting people we’ll ever know. Chuck Piper was one of those very special, lifelong friends.

My first meeting with Chuck was in 1978. I was happily employed at an advertising agency called Bailey Lewis and Associates. One day I got a phone call from Chuck Piper. At the time he was executive vice president of longtime Lincoln ad agency (and Bailey Lewis competitor) Ayres and Associates. Ayres was looking for a young and ambitious account executive. Would I be available to interview? Always looking for greener pastures, I said, “Let’s talk.” Those days I was playing racquetball every day, so I arranged for my big time interview to be at Chuck (and his wife Kathy’s) house after a particularly intense game. I was in my sweats and sweaty. If he didn’t like my “dress,” so be it. I had never talked to anyone like Chuck. His parting shot that interview day was, “Miss James, you have a reputation for being a women’s libber.” My quick retort was, “Well, that’s the nicest thing anyone’s said to me in a long time.” He called the next day and offered me the job.

At Ayres, Chuck was the boss. I would often find myself in weird, odd and sometimes uncomfortable spaces and places. He was tough to work for. (That’s an understatement). Demanding and generous. Moody and mercurial. Anyone who’s known Chuck understands that if you play by his rules he’s a happy guy. But, dare to dare him, and he’ll happily play mind games until your brain hurts. I learned early on that I didn’t like a sore brain. Chuck taught me many things about our profession of advertising. What a good account executive is supposed to do for a client. The demands of being an effective creative. What it takes to be an insightful copywriter. (He was one of the best copywriters I’ve ever known.) How to present an abstract idea to complete strangers. Goals. Objectives. Strategies and tactics. We lived and breathed that world.

When Chuck joined the CoJMC’s advertising and public relations faculty in the mid-80s, I followed some four years later. He put his students through the same demanding paces he taught me in the early Ayres days – he was a force. Chuck loved the profession of advertising, and he loved his students and wanted them to be the best. The good students appreciated his kind of rigor and rare praise. Good students always do. As time went by, things changed, new deans were hired, old colleagues left or passed away.

Chuck left UNL in 1995 to spend the rest of his professional life in a successful position with ad agency Bailey Lewis – now called Bailey Lauerman. There he would again plot strategies and tactics, this time with his good friend Rich Bailey. Agency life was in his blood and bones. In the later years, we would meet for the perfunctory dinner at each other’s homes or at his favorite Indian restaurant. My husband, Bob, enjoyed Chuck’s mental sparring. His wonderfully loving and patient wife, Kathy, would just roll her eyes. We saw less and less of each other, but always knew we had a special connection that only time or death would break. Sadly, that day has come. Never again will I hear that familiar deep, raspy voice. But, I count myself as one of his many fortunate and devoted students. And his friend. We all thank you, Chuck, for taking that long walk with us. It was interesting. You were interesting. Very. 

–Professor Stacy C. James, Emerita, 1988-2014

Advertising and Public Relations

UNL College of Journalism and Mass Communications


You can see Chuck Piper's obituary from the Lincoln Journal Star here.

Chuck Piper