Berta Ruth Ledecky

http://prabook.org/web/person-view.html?profileId=176244

Berta Ledecky, American advertising agency executive, author. Certified English as Second Language teacher. Recipient Creative Writing award, New York University, 1950, Numerous Poetry & Short Story awards, 1970-1982; New York State scholar, 1952. Member of Pharmaceutical Advertising Council.

Background

Ledecky, Berta was born on January 2, 1933 in New York City. Daughter of Milton Henry and Eleanor Tecla Greenwald (Stoll).

Education

• Bachelor cum laude, Brooklyn College, Columbia University, 1956.

Career

• Managing editor Patient Care Publications, Darien, Connecticut, 1974—1976. Senior project director Health, Education & Technology, New York City, 1977—1979. Senior medical writer William Douglas McAdams, Inc., 1980.
• Vice president, director copy services Klemtner Advertising, Inc., 1980—1983, senior vice president, associate creative director, 1983—1984. Senior vice president, creative director Ruvane Leverte/Bozell & Jacobs, 1984—1985. Executive vice president, chief operating officer Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt Healthcare Advertising Division, 1985—1987, executive vice president, managing director, since 1987.

Major achievements

• Certified English as Second Language teacher.

Works

• Author: (short stories) (Redbook) Good Housekeeping, 1970-1982. Contributor articles to foreign language publications.

Religion

• Denomination: jewish

Membership

• Member of Pharmaceutical Advertising Council.

Connections

Married Jaromir Ledecky, December 30, 1956. Children: Jonathan Joseph, David.

Katie Ledecky, Olympic gold medalist swimmer, lost family members in the Holocaust

... Berta, who is Czech, is the mother of Ledecky’s father.
Berta and her non-Jewish husband Jaromir (who went by Jerry), met in the United States in 1956, about eight years after Jerry had immigrated from Prague with only five dollars in his pocket. Berta — whom writer S.L. Price describes as a “formidable” woman — once spent a year working as a translator for Albert Einstein at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn.
\When Katie was 10, Berta took her to a Jewish cemetery in Prague and showed her graves of her family members who died during the Holocaust. Price doesn’t mention the exact number Berta’s family lost during World War II, or provide details of Berta’s experiences during the Holocaust, but the memory clearly stuck with Katie. Although Ledecky is Catholic and famously recites the Hail Mary before her races, Price writes that the “fuel” that drives Ledecky includes the visit to “a Jewish cemetery in Prague.” ...

• Friedman, Gabe. "Katie Ledecky, Olympic gold medalist swimmer, lost family members in the Holocaust." The Jewish Journal, 6 August 2016. < http://www.jewishjournal.com/olympics/article/katie_ledecky_olympic... > Accessed 8 August 2016.