jay/day

Bill Delaney, who started working at Chiat/Day 25 years ago, turned up in my mailbox a while back ...

I worked in the Chiat-Day SF office from 1981 - 1984. I managed the Paris, France, office of Regis McKenna Inc. when Jay acquired Regis' agency. I launched Apple in Europe and worked with them from 1979 - 1981. Jay called one day (2:00 AM Paris time) and simply said - "Bill, Jay Chiat. We just inked a deal with Regis and decided we don't need someone in Paris. If you're interested in staying with the Apple account and working in the San Francisco office, plan to meet with me in New York on Thursday." This was Tuesday when he called.

I didn't know what to expect, but the next two years were very interesting. Dealing with Steve Jobs, Jay Chiat, Steve Hayden, Lee Clow, Dick Cavett, Fred Hoar and others made life interesting. The 24/7 schedule was a real treat as well! ;-) I used to love hanging out in the office late at night until Jay would fly in to SF and review the work for Apple. He would cut 25% of the work and change 50%. The client meeting was the next morning at 8:00 AM, at Apple. Nothing like wearing the same clothes for two days! But, I would not have changed any of it.

Working with Jay, Lee, Tom, Steve, Chuck, Greg, Dave, and others was a real treat. I met my wife there as well. June Murakami. She and I dated for 8 months before we got married and we will celebrate our 25th anniversary in February. The entire gang from Creative attended the wedding and Jay sent us a wonderful gift. He supported our relationship when the policy was "no dating or married couples at Chiat-Day." We are forever grateful to him for his kindness.

One other name that you may not have is Maurice Goldman. He was also from Regis McKenna. He was an account director with me on the Apple business.He died a number of years ago in SF, but he is still remembered with fond thoughts by those of us who knew him. He was one of the nicest people you can imagine and was a loyal and dedicated Chiat-Day employee. His name should be included on your list.

As for the photos, those are my two daughters. The one on the right was our first and born while June and I were still at Chiat-Day SF. She just graduated from SDSU and was on a womens golf scholarship there. The younger one is in 8th Grade here in Alameda and is into performing arts.