Arthur W. Page served as vice president of public relations for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company from 1927 to 1946. He was the first person in a public relations position to serve as an officer and member of the Board of Directors of a major public corporation.

He was responsible for the organization of public relations departments in each of the twenty-one Bell System companies and for assuring they were headed by an officer in senior management. During the time he was an officer of AT&T, it became the largest publicly held corporation in the world.

Page was distinguished as an outstanding public relations practitioner, churchman, educator and statesman. Both in belief and practice he held that "all business in a democratic country begins with public permission and exists by public approval."

Throughout his life, Page devoted himself to his avocation as a counselor to private and public sector executives. He was on the boards of numerous corporations, charities, colleges and civic groups. He contributed his energy and inspiration to enterprises such as the Marshall Plan and Radio Free Europe. He was a special confidant to Henry L. Stimson, who served in the Cabinets of William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. Page is credited with writing, at Stimson's request, Truman's announcement of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan.

The principles of business conduct for which he became known have influenced thousands of American thought leaders during the past six decades. He, more than any other individual, laid the foundation for the field of corporate public relations. Arthur W. Page died in 1960, at the age of 77.