Albert G. Salter

Albert G. Salter, a retired advertising executive and writer, died on October 15, 2018 at Coffman Nursing Home in Hagerstown, MD, a city where he had lived for the final seventeen of his 92 years. Salter was an active member of the Potomac Highlands World War II Veterans Roundtable until his recent ill health. Born in Upland, California, on February 15, 1926, the oldest of the six children of Albert G. Salter, Sr., a school principal, and Geraldine Callahan, a homemaker, Salter enlisted in the U.S. Navy at the age of seventeen. He served in World War II as a radar specialist on the U.S.S. Elmore, an attack transport ship which in 1943-5 participated in invasions in the Marshall Islands, Guam, Peleliu, the Philippines, and Okinawa.
Onboard he and two friends published a newspaper called The Amfibber that was not all news: in it they invented a fictional stowaway, Ellie, to keep them company. Late in life, Salter still remembered vividly the first time he saw a Japanese plane shot down; the arrival of wounded soldiers when the Elmore served as a makeshift hospital; and the kamikaze attack intended for the Elmore but which struck another ship nearby.
Moving to Lansing, Michigan after the war, Salter married a local artist and student, Lormina Paradise. In 1950 he was graduated with a B.A. in English from Michigan State University, where he wrote short stories and acted in plays. He also did graduate study in English at the University of California at Berkeley. His distinguished advertising career, first as a copy writer, later as an executive, began in Grand Rapids, Michigan and led to his long-time employment at W. B. Doner and Companyin Detroit in 1962-3, and then in Baltimore from 1963 to 1983. Salter was involved in creative campaigns for such clients as the National Guard, the Social Security Administration, the Baltimore News American, and even Baltimore itself (which the agency dubbed "Charm City") and the region ("the land of pleasant living").
Though raised Catholic and educated in parochial schools, he was in adulthood a Unitarian and became a member of the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore. An enthusiast of the Hollywood films of the 1930s and 40s, which he saw repeatedly as a teenaged usher at movie houses in Pasadena, Salter was also committed to the theater, and served on the board of Baltimores Center Stage.
In 1983, with his second wife, artist Janet Siegmann Salter, he left Baltimore for Houston, where they founded their own agency, Salter and Associates. He retired at the age of 63 to devote himself to consulting and writing, as well as collecting and selling political memorabilia in conventions around the country. With his wife he ran a small business, J&A Political Collectibles. He also was a collector of first editions of American and British literature, and of books about thoroughbred horses and horse racing. Horses were a passion ever since, as a boy, he had peered through a fence to watch Seabiscuit win a race at Santa Anita Park.
Salter and his wife moved in 1989 to Berkeley Springs, WV, where he was chair of the citys Senior Life Services board. He wrote a column, "The Country Side," for the county newspaper, The Morgan Messenger, where he opined both on country life and on current events. He received the "Best Column in a Weekly" award from the West Virginia Press Association three times. He also devoted time to writing fiction and poetry. Moving to Hagerstown, MD in 2001, he was an occasional guest lecturer on American history in the towns public schools. Salter and his wife also traveled to far-flung placesamong them Egypt, South Africa, Japan, and Guam.
Salters career in advertising included an expertise in political campaigns. A lifelong Democrat, from the late 1950s in Grand Rapids he was involved in county and district politics; he was a delegate to the state convention in Michigan and once ran for local office himself. In 1960, he was president of Kent County, Michigans Democratic Committee. The most notable of the many advertising campaigns he oversaw at the local, state, and national level was the successful bid of Senator Joseph D. Tydings of Maryland in 1964.
Salter was a longtime member of the APIC (American Political Items Collectors) and became a frequent writer for its quarterly journal, The Keynoter. He twice won the APICs Presidents Award for his "unparalleled service," and in 2011 he received an award from the journal Political Bandwagon for his work in collecting and preserving political Americana. His own collection was extensive and notable, focusing on pre-presidential memorabilia, and included everything from a ribbon Abraham Lincoln wore to the first Republican convention in 1856 to rare posters and recordings. Over more than twenty years, he also wrote Reaching for the White House, a comprehensive illustrated history of the early lives and pathways to power of all of the twentieth century presidents.
Salter is survived by his wife of 37 years, Janet Siegmann Salter of Hagerstown, MD, and also by the three children of his first marriage: Philip Salter and William Salter, both of Brooklyn, New York, and Mary Jo Salter of Baltimore, MD. He also leaves a sister, Mary Salter, of Long Beach, CA; a brother, Jack Salter, of Royal Oak, MI; and seven grandchildren.

Family and friends are invited to a celebration of his life on Saturday, December 1st, 2018 at Rest Haven Funeral Home.
In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations being sent in Salters memory to The Carter Center, at https://www.cartercenter.org/health.