TV news foundation philanthropist Glazer dies
Former teacher, union activist helped create awards dinner.
Mina Lasow Glazer, who along with her late husband, George Glazer, a national news media executive, and celebrity Jane Fonda worked to establish the Radio-Television News Directors Foundation’s First Amendment Awards Dinner, died at Delray Beach Medical Center on Thursday.
Glazer, 84, was also a former New York City schoolteacher, educational union activist, and Marriott Corp. executive.
The Glazers’ work for the RTNDF, now known as the Radio Television Digital News Foundation, will be commemorated at the 28th annual First Amendment Awards ceremony on Thursday in Washington.
“The event honors a distinguished group of journalists and First Amendment leaders that exemplify responsible journalism and who practice their constitutionally guaranteed duty to seek and report the truth, which have always been important benchmarks to the Glazer family,” said RTDNF Executive Director Dan Shelley.
At the event, hosted by Margaret Brennan, CBS News’ “Face the Nation” moderator; ABC News’ “Good Morning America” host Robin Roberts will receive a lifetime achievement award, and the Glazers’ son, Bryan, a broadcast news media executive, will announce the establishment of the George and Mina Glazer Scholarship.
Bryan Glazer is president and executive producer of World Satellite Television News, a New
York and West Palm Beach media relations firm that creates broadcast news campaigns.
“My mother’s favorite saying was, ‘life is not a dress rehearsal,’ ” Glazer said.
George Glazer was the chief broadcasting officer at Hill and Knowlton Strategies for 27 years.
He was also co-chairman of the First Amendment Awards for more than a decade.
In 2001, George Glazer joined his son in business. During the past 50 years the Glazers counseled such luminaries as “CBS News” anchorman Walter Cronkite; CBS News “60 Minutes” host Mike Wallace and its executive producer Don Hewitt; Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson; JetBlue founder David Neeleman; and celebrities Paul McCartney, Gladys Knight and Muhammad Ali, among many others. George Glazer died in 2016.
Mina Glazer was the daughter of a Russian Jewish immigrant who escaped the 1920 anti-Jewish pogrom.
In 1968, she was a United Teachers Federation union activist in the historic New York City teachers strike.
In 1976, she was recruited to work as the New York executive assistant to Marriott corporate CEO Bill Marriott.
In 1998, she and her husband moved to Valencia Lakes west of Boynton Beach.
Glazer is survived by her son, Bryan; her daughter, Marjorie Glazer Edelstein; and her son-in-law, Steven Edelstein.
Glazer will be buried today alongside her husband, a Korean War veteran, at the South Florida National Cemetery west of Lake Worth.