Michael Birck, 77, retired chairman and one of the co-founders of Tellabs, died July 6 of leukemia. He worked for Bell Labs, Continental Telephone Laboratories and Wescom before launching transmission and signaling equipment maker Tellabs. Survivors include his wife, two sons and a daughter. A funeral Mass is set for 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Isaac Jogues Church in Hinsdale, Illinois.
Ralph Roberts, 95, Comcast founder, died Thursday in Philadelphia of natural causes. The chairman emeritus of the No. 1 U.S. multichannel video programming distributor, now run by his son Brian, Comcast's chairman and CEO, Ralph Roberts founded Comcast in 1963 with the purchase of a 1,200-subscriber cable system in Tupelo, Mississippi. He helped oversee Comcast's expansion over the years, partly through acquisitions, including the 2002 AT&T Broadband buy that vaulted Comcast to No. 1 MVPD. Survivors include his wife, three other children besides Brian and eight grandchildren. A private funeral service is planned for the family and a ceremony celebrating Ralph's life will be held at a future time, the company said Friday. Statements of condolence poured in Friday, including from the American Cable Association, Cablevision, Charter Communications, C-SPAN, NCTA and TWC (see here, here, here and here). FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler learned from Roberts, Wheeler said. "He has left a lasting legacy on the communications landscape of America.”
Charles Benton, 84, died at home in Evanston, Illinois, Wednesday of cancer. He chaired the Benton Foundation, which he founded in 1981 with a grant from his father. At the foundation, he advocated for regulation on media and telecom matters such as broadcast ownership and the USF. President Jimmy Carter named Benton chairman of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science and of the first White House conference on library and information services. President Bill Clinton appointed him to the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters. And President Barack Obama named him to the board of the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Benton is survived by his wife, two children, including daughter Adrianne Furniss, who is the Benton Foundation's executive director, a sister and five grandchildren. Funeral and other arrangements are pending.
Konrad Schaefer, 77, died at home Tuesday in McLean, Virginia. He worked on telecom issues in the Carter and Reagan administrations, and was an aide on international issues to then-FCC Chairman Mark Fowler. He then started his own international telecom consulting firm and co-founded the first private company to lay a fiber cable between the U.S. and U.K. His last job was chairman and CEO of Swisscom North America, which he started after Switzerland, a client at his consulting firm, asked him to open a North American arm of that country's state-owned telecom company. Schaefer is survived by wife, sister, two sons, a daughter and four grandchildren. Funeral services are 1:45 p.m. Friday at Temple Rodef Shalom, 2100 Westmoreland St., Falls Church, Virginia, and burial is immediately afterwards at King David Memorial Gardens, followed by a gathering at what was his home, 1487 Evans Farm Dr., McLean. Contributions can be made to Capital Caring, 950 N. Glebe Rd., Arlington, Virginia.
Rebecca Rini, 54, died suddenly at home in Washington Sunday, according to her business partner David O'Neil of the Rini O'Neil law firm. Rini, who represented broadcasters and wireless companies, spent her career as a communications lawyer in private practice. In 1992, she co-founded the law firm, which will keep its current name, O'Neil said. She's survived by a son, daughter, mother and sister. Funeral is Sunday at 10 a.m. at the Collins Funeral Home, 500 University Blvd. W., Silver Spring, Maryland.
Peggy Charren, 86, founder of Action for Children’s Television, died Thursday. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a statement Thursday called Charren "the driving force behind the passage of the Children’s TV Act of 1990," which increased educational and informational TV programming for children. Charren "singlehandedly turned the vast wasteland that was children’s television programming in the 1960’s and 1970’s into the plethora of educational, informational and entertaining programming families enjoy today," he said. "We are grateful for her immense contributions to public television and to the children of America," said CEO Patrick Butler of the Association of Public Television Stations in a statement Thursday. Disney Channels Worldwide and Nickelodeon in statements Thursday said Charren represented the most impressionable viewers and transformed the kids' TV landscape. Charren is survived by her husband, two daughters, a sister and six grandchildren. WGBH-TV Boston, where Charren worked for many years, is planning a celebration of her life for March, said a spokeswoman for the station.
Jerry Hogan, 64, AT&T assistant vice president-federal relations in the Washington office, died of cancer Monday at his McLean, Virginia, home. Hogan was a longtime telecom industry lawyer, who before AT&T worked for AllTel and Ameritech. He is survived by his wife, two sons, a daughter, five brothers and four sisters. Visitation is 2-4 and 6-8 p.m. Thursday at Murphy Funeral Home at 4510 Wilson Blvd. in Arlington, and his burial Mass is 12:30 p.m. Friday at St. John the Beloved at 6420 Linway Terrace in McLean. Donations may be sent to the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Center's Colon Cancer Research Program.
Susan Eid, who ran DirecTV's office in Washington, died Thursday after a long battle with cancer. Her age wasn't disclosed by DirecTV, where she had worked as an executive vice president and oversaw the company's federal, state and local legislative and regulatory efforts. Before joining DirecTV in 2004, Eid was an aide to then-FCC Chairman Michael Powell on media issues, and before that she worked for Continental Cablevision. Eid is survived by her parents and sister. Donations can be made in her name to the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in Boston.
Glenn Britt, 65, Time Warner Cable board member and former chairman and CEO, died of cancer Wednesday at his home in New York City. Before retiring in December from the top jobs at the No. 2 U.S. cable operator, which subsequently agreed to be sold for about $66 billion to Comcast, Britt led Time Warner Cable since 2001, and held other jobs there and before that at Time Inc. He oversaw Time Warner Cable’s selling stock for the first time to the public and its 2009 separation from Time Warner Inc., was on the board of NCTA 2003-2013 and was known for efforts in VOD and broadband services. His wife survives him. The funeral service will be private, and memorial service plans will be announced later (http://bit.ly/1oUgyV0).