Frederick Wachter, 87, a longtime Chicago and New York advertising man who handled accounts for Walt Disney, Mars Candy and other companies through corporate advertising houses and his own firm, died Monday, Feb. 5, of pneumonia in the Abington of Glenview nursing home. “When he wrote anything, it was incredible. He knew the way to say what he wanted to say,” said his daughter, Nancy Rolison. “There would always be a little bend at the end to make sure that when you read it, you would never forget it.” It was an ability that attracted top-drawer clients like Outboard Marine, Elgin Clock and John Deere, she said. Mr. Wachter was raised in Chicago and graduated in 1931 from Tilden Tech High School, where he played basketball and tennis. He studied architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He returned home to take care of his family when his father died. In 1942, he married the former Lucille Moore. He did marketing work for General Electric in Chicago, eventually doing copywriting for GE as well. During World War II, he volunteered for the Army and served as a junior officer at a base in Texas, where he did clerical and marketing work. After the war, he joined Erwin Wasey advertising in Chicago, starting as a copywriter and eventually becoming an executive vice president. When Erwin Wasey merged to become EWR&R, Mr. Wachter continued as executive vice president and general manager, moving briefly to Connecticut and working in Manhattan. A year later, frustrated with cutbacks associated with the merger, he returned to Chicago. He got a job in the early-1960s as a vice president with what was then Needham, Louis & Brorby. He left shortly, and for a time in the mid-1960s, he commuted to a Minneapolis advertising firm until starting his own firm, Words At Work. He retired in 1978. His wife died in 1993. In addition to his daughter, Mr. Wachter is survived by a son, Peter; four other daughters, Lily Gaines, Merry Dippold, Elizabeth Lewin and Maggie Wagner; 10 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. A mass was said Thursday.
