Diana Pinckley, communications strategist, civic activist and book ...

Diana Pinckley, a public-relations executive and communications strategist who became active on many fronts after Hurricane Katrina as a community volunteer striving to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, died Wednesday of cancer at her New Orleans home. She was 60.

In post-Katrina New Orleans, she served on a host of recovery-related committees, most notably Women of the Storm, whose members traveled three times to Washington to lobby for help to restore New Orleans levees and, after the BP oil spill, the ravaged Gulf Coast.

"Diana was a connecter, sharing her talents, love and insatiable intellect with everyone and every cause she believed in," said Anne Milling, the organization's founder.

"Thank you for your service to our city and state," U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., wrote to Ms. Pinckley last week, adding that she wished Ms. Pinckley "peace and joy (for) knowing you made a big difference."

A native of Jamestown, Tenn., Ms. Pinckley was an honors graduate of Duke University who came to New Orleans in 1973 to be a staff writer in Tulane's University Relations office. She became its news director and, from 1981 to 1993, its director. In this role, she was the spokeswoman for Tulane's Uptown campus, and she founded Inside Tulane, a campus newsletter.

The office produced publications and news releases, winning national awards for its work, and it coordinated Tulane's sesquicentennial celebration in 1984.

She left Tulane in 1993 to form Pinckley Inc., which helped develop communications strategies for clients such as the Graduate Management Admissions Council, Ohio University, the University of the Pacific, the business schools at Columbia University and Dartmouth College, and the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

Ms. Pinckley grew up reading mysteries, and she reviewed nearly 350 of them over 23 years for The Times-Picayune in her column, "Get a Clue." She also interviewed authors and was, most recently, Tulane Medicine's editor.

Before Katrina, Ms. Pinckley was already involved in civic organizations, serving on the New Orleans Council for Young Children, which established a school-based health clinic in the Lower 9th Ward, and the Committee of 21, which was formed to get more women elected to public office. She also was chairwoman of the board that runs the Crescent City Farmers Market.

"Helping creative people prosper made Pinckley tick," said Richard McCarthy, the market's executive director. "Scan the landscape of good things happening. In all likelihood, there was Pinckley, leading from behind. She never sought the spotlight, though she deserved it. She found far greater pleasure in helping others with talent and good intentions grow."

After Katrina, Ms. Pinckley's volunteer work moved into high gear. She devoted increasing amounts of her time and energy to organizations that were rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, most notably Women of the Storm.

Ms. Pinckley kept the organization "informed, engaged and enlightened to the ever-changing currents of political platforms that occurred during the rebuilding efforts post-Katrina and, subsequently into the coastal-restoration initiatives," Milling said. "No assignment was ever too much or too great. There will be an unfillable void."

Ms. Pinckley also helped bring back the city's public-library system, and she served on the task force that established the Edible Schoolyard, where Samuel Green Charter School students learn to cultivate vegetables and prepare meals as part of the curriculum. She also was vice president of the board of the Foundation for Science and Mathematics Education, which supports the New Orleans Charter Science & Mathematics High School.

Ms. Pinckley raised money for WWNO-FM and was an active volunteer at WWOZ-FM. She frequently went on the air to raise money for the latter station, which was a major passion of hers because of her devotion to New Orleans music. Whenever Ms. Pinckley did a fundraising broadcast, she always exceeded the goal for her time slot.

One such gig occurred shortly after Women of the Storm's third trip to Washington, where Ms. Pinckley was one of a group chosen to go to Vice President Joe Biden's office to meet with his staff. That didn't faze her, but when she was at WWOZ two days later with a renowned local musician, she couldn't contain her enthusiasm, sending out this text in capital letters: "I'M IN THE STUDIO WITH DAVE BARTHOLOMEW!"

In 2006, CityBusiness named her one of its Women of the Year.

She and her husband, Times-Picayune reporter John Pope, were avid travelers. They rode the Orient Express from Venice to London on their honeymoon, they explored the Galapagos Islands, and they scaled the Great Wall of China and the ruins of Machu Picchu. Her photographs illustrated his Times-Picayune stories of their trips to Scotland, Crete, China and, most recently, a safari in Botswana.

In addition to her husband, survivors include two half-brothers, Guy Pinckley of Allardt, Tenn., and Dr. James Pinckley of Springfield, Mo.; and a half-sister, Patricia Johnson of Knoxville, Tenn.

A memorial service will be held Saturday at 3 p.m. in the Howard Library, 915 Andrew Higgins Drive, between Lee Circle and Camp Street. Visitation will begin at 2 p.m.

Source: http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/09/diana_pinckley_communications.html

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