Andy Bertucci Passes Away

Andy Bertucci, the founder of the United States Sign Council and its longtime executive director before stepping down in 2010, passed away Monday. A visitation and memorial service was held October 8 at Molden Funeral Chapel, 133 Otter Street, Bristol, PA.

In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be sent to the United States Sign Council Foundation at 211 Radcliffe Street, Bristol, PA 19007.

We offer our sincere condolences to Andy’s loved ones, friends and numerous professionals who’ve worked with him throughout his lengthy career in the sign industry. 

Andy was connected to the sign industry for more than a half century — since 1953 . A graduate of Philadelphia’s LaSalle College, he designed and sold signs for his family’s business. He first became officially involved with sign-industry associations when he was named executive secretary of the Delaware Valley Sign Assn. (DVSA), which served the greater Philadelphia area, in May 1970. In January 1976, he became vice president of the then Eastern States Sign Council (ESSC), which was one of the National Electric Sign Assn.’s (NESA) regions. A few months later, on April 22-23, he presented a slide show on sign design at the Urban Sign Forum, where the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) got on earful from the sign industry for having provided the grant money for the original Street Graphics. 

In 1989, when NESA first established its regional legislation representatives, Andy was named to represent ESSC. Yet in the same issue in which that announcement occurred, ESSC also announced plans to have its own tradeshow in Atlantic City, not Boston or Baltimore, per NESA’s schedule, because of its disappointment in the profits it received from its NESA regional show in Atlantic City that February. This was the precursor to the Sign World shows that continue to be held every December in Atlantic City.

In March 1992, while Andy was serving as ESSC executive director, ESSC officially declared its independence from ISA. By then, Andy was also serving as executive director of New York and New Jersey Sign Assns. as well, along with DVSA. In 1996, both NESA and ESSC "promoted" themselves to the Intl. Sign Assn. and United States Sign council, respectively. Andy remained as executive driector of USSC until his retirement last year.  

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His original company, Andrew Bertucci Associates, which, among many things, served as an advertising agency, changed its name to Bertucci Maren Associates in 1981 when he joined forces with Nancy Maren.  The company continues to serve as the administrator for USSC. Nancy succeeded Andy as USSC Executive Director when he retired last year.

One of Andy’s many legacies is all of the research on signs’ visual acuity that has been conducted through the USSC Foundation with Penn State University’s Transportation Institute over the past two decades.