tribute to Vail, telephone service across the United States was halted for one minute on the morning of April 18, 1920, while his funeral was being conducted in Parsippany, New Jersey. From 11:00 to 11:01, Eastern time (8:00 to 8:01 a.m. Pacific Time), A T & T telephone operators disconnected calls. At the time, "This caused temporary silence of about 12,000,000 telephones and 24,000,000 miles of telephone wire." Legacy In his historical review of AT&T, John Brooks explained Vail's contribution to enlightened corporate policy: Vail’s presidential essays in AT&T annual reports are like nothing else in American business literature, before or since. They are personal, revealing, discursive, and sometimes pontifical. "If we don’t tell the truth about ourselves, someone else will", Vail said in 1911. ... In 1907 he led off with a section entitled "Public Relations" – by which, as the context made clear, he meant not advertising and promotion, but the whole scope of relations between the corporation and the public. ... Vail introduced the concept ... that maximum private profit was not necessarily the primary objective of private enterprise. Profit was necessary to insure financial health...but was only one element in an equation. Other accomplishments Vail founded the Vermont School of Agriculture in 1910 in Lyndon, Vermont. This was subsequently merged into a preparatory school, Lyndon Institute. He acquired the scientific book collection of George Edward Dering in 1911 and presented it to the library of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Vail Collection covers topics including "electricity, magnetism, lighter-than-air travel, animal magnetism" and others. Vail co-founded Junior Achievement in 1919. Namesakes Vail Campus, Lyndon Institute, Lyndon, Vermont. References Further reading External links 1845 births 1920 deaths American telecommunications industry businesspeople Public relations pioneers American chief executives Businesspeople from Ohio Junior Achievement Vail family AT&T people People from Malvern, Ohio