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Ad agency head Bill Munsell dies
He led the ‘Madison Avenue in a cornfield’
Design committee co-chairs Bill Munsell (left) and Gary Anderson (center) talk to Cedar Rapids City Council member Justin Shields in front of the Tree of Five Seasons after a grand opening ceremony for the Five Seasons Plaza in 2012. Anderson was the designer of the tree. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
CEDAR RAPIDS — Longtime Cedar Rapids advertising and public relations executive Bill Munsell died earlier this month, at age 96, in Englewood, Fla.
The Boone native joined W.D. Lyon Co. in 1962.
By the 1970s and 1980s, the agency — by then named Creswell, Munsell, Fultz and Zirbel — with Munsell at its head, had become known for representing the agriculture services sector and was deemed “Madison Avenue in a cornfield,“ according to Greg Michel, in a 2003 post on AgriMarketing’s website. Michel, a Des Moines marketing consultant, worked for CMFZ for 17 years.
Among other civic activities — including raising funds for the Episcopal Church in Cedar Rapids and in Boca Grande, Fla. — Munsell helped lead the campaign to designate Cedar Rapids as “the City of Five Seasons” and was co-chair for the design of the 61-foot steel sculpture, “Tree of Five Seasons,” that now stands near the First Avenue Bridge in downtown Cedar Rapids.
The sculpture was dedicated in 1996.
Services will be announced by the family.
