douglas roberts comcast obituary 2011douglas roberts comcast obituary 2011

I never felt that Comcast was a sixth child," she said. Less than $5 per month A Visitation will be held on Friday, March 3 from 10 am 12 pm at Drake and Son Funeral Home, 5303 North Western Ave., Chicago, IL 60625. Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, his alma matter, said, "His legacy is abundant here, including Penn Medicine's Roberts Proton Therapy Center, a place of hope and healing established in 2009 through the generosity of Ralph and his family. The magic words, according to Mr. Roberts, were "Yes, dear.". The Dignity Memorial brand name is used to identify a network of licensed funeral, cremation and cemetery providers that include affiliates of Service Corporation International, 1929 Allen Parkway, Houston, Texas. Mr. Roberts has by all accounts done a skillful job of grooming Brian to fill his shoes so that he is both respected by his peers and supported by his siblings. Mr. Roberts later took jobs with the Muzak Corporation and the Pioneer Suspender Company, which sold mens belts and cologne. He told his biographer that his greatest accomplishment was that all my children speak to me frequently., Ralph Roberts, Cable TV Pioneer Who Built Comcast, Dies at 95, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/20/business/media/ralph-roberts-cable-tv-pioneer-who-built-comcast-dies-at-95.html. Ralph Joel Roberts was born on March 13, 1920, in New York. "Ralph Roberts is the absolutely most clear-cut example of the American dream," said former Gov. In 1942, he married Suzanne Fleisher, an aspiring actress from a well-to-do Philadelphia family. [4] He was awarded honorary degrees from both Holy Family College and the University of Pennsylvania, where he received their Joseph P. Wharton Award. Their son, Brian L. Roberts, is the current CEO of Comcast Corporation. '', Both parents said that in bringing up their brood, they worked hard to see that the children connected with one another. Douglas McArthur ROBERTS, age 79, of Rancho Cucamonga, California passed away on Monday, May 16, 2022. To send flowers That was evident earlier this month when Brian Roberts and the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, struck a deal in which Microsoft agreed to pay $1 billion for an 11.5 percent stake in Comcast. [6], Roberts served on the boards of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Brandywine River Museum, the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition, and the PENN Medicine Board of Trustees. And I always answer with a straight face, 'Of course I did,' " Mr. Roberts said in An Incredible Dream, his authorized biography, written by William Novak. ''It is the same thing as giving birth -- or having another generation. He and his wife, the former Suzanne Fleisher, restored it. He never pressured any of them to join the family company -- and none besides Brian showed any interest in doing so. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. Brian Roberts countered that other companies, including Comcast, were aggressively upgrading. '', Brian Roberts, on the other hand, seems to relish his public role. One early venture was selling an innovative golf putter. Your entry has exceeded the maximum character limit. ''Ralph is tough,'' he says ruefully. ''Ralph and Julian have been intimately involved, but Ralph doesn't sit there until 4 A.M. in the lawyers' offices anymore. ALL along, however, Mr. Roberts has drawn his son closer to the center of action inside Comcast and pushed him into the spotlight outside the company. It is a skill that Brian Roberts knows he has yet to prove and that is rare among the sons of powerful men, who are often overwhelmed by their fathers. I didn't want it to appear that he was just his father's son.''. . His main goal at the time was to make a lot of money. Receive a notification when services are updated. Doug graduated from Hillsborough High School in Tampa and went on to attend Hobart School of Welding. The company is clearly planning for the day that Ralph Roberts will no longer be running the show. These early losses, coupled with experiences as a young salesman of golf clubs, men's accessories, cologne, and Muzak, gave Mr. Roberts an ambitious, entrepreneurial spirit. Comfort the family with flowers or a sympathy gift. As Comcast prospered, so did the Roberts family. ", Mayor Nutter called Mr. Roberts a "consummate gentleman, kind and gentle husband and father, and a great business leader.". "That culture says that you have to care about the people you work with. Even though Brian is the CEO, Ralph set the tone from a business point of view.". The appeal was the Roberts team, the challenge, and the firm's culture. Executive vice president David L. Cohen jumped to Comcast in 2002 from a high-profile job as chairman of the Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll law firm. In the meantime, he and his wife had five children. He came home each weeknight at 7 p.m. and left his briefcase by the door, along with business cares. Sign up for service and obituary updates. Bob McGovern Anyone can read what you share. He was chairman of the board from 1969 to 2002. Prepare a personalized obituary for someone you loved.. January 6, 1955 - Messages run for up to one year and you ''I have never seen a relationship that could surpass the two of them,'' she said. Like many media entrepreneurs, Ralph Roberts created several classes of stock, enabling him to issue equity without losing control. 1-800-896-5587 (Mon-Fri, 7am-6pm MDT) Annual Membership . "As a person, his DNA is all over our company. If he hadn't, his father confesses, ''I probably would have sold the company. He was the greatest influence in my life and a joy for me to work side by side with for over three decades. Fleisher. As an executive, Mr. Roberts had a knack for attracting talented people and giving them power, within limits. I knew a lot of people at Comcast. Mr. Roberts, typically dapper in his signature bow tie and Brooks Brothers suits, became his sons mentor and sounding board, and the two were admired as a potent business partnership while never displaying the kind of strained and tempestuous relationship that can flare when a son succeeds a successful father. No services are scheduled at this time. Later, the two men found themselves in the same restaurant, and Mr. Roberts suggested that Microsoft consider investing in cable. PHILADELPHIA-- ( BUSINESS WIRE )--Today we are deeply saddened to announce that Ralph J. Roberts, husband, father and grandfather, died of natural causes last night in Philadelphia, PA. "I never had a bad idea in working for him for 30-plus years," Roberts said. Mr. Roberts later worked in advertising at the Aitkin-Kynett agency, writing slogans for the Democrat William Benton, a successful United States Senate candidate from Connecticut who defeated Prescott S. Bush, the father and grandfather of two presidents, in 1950. And her husband reminisced about family trips. I believe the reason we are still in this business when so many others have long since departed was his will to succeed, and to do it with certain core values and integrity. Intrigued by the nascent cable industrys potential and aided by Mr. Aaron and Julian Brodsky, a Philadelphia accountant, Mr. Roberts decided to invest, overcoming his own initial misgivings and the even stronger doubts of his wife, Suzanne, who, he said, thought he was absolutely crazy., The cable business, you put up a tower, you run a line down through the telephone poles, you charge everybody $5 a month, and you dont do anything, so it didnt seem very appealing to me, Mr. Roberts recalled in receiving a television industry award in 2003. He rose to president and chief executive at Pioneer and eventually bought the company. Many entrepreneurs are very secretive. Mr. Roberts taught by example. It is a sign of a man who has given considerable thought to the future and has spoken to his other children. Though his father called Comcast a family business, Brian was the only one of the children to show a serious interest in working with his father. . Funeral homes; Help and advice. The company also has 33 million shares of common stock with one vote each and 284 million K shares with no votes. The potential for conflict is obvious. Mr. Roberts would help with homework and listen to each of his five children. If a family has to go to law court to determine what is fair, the issue is what's the law, not what is fair.''. He credits his mother for pulling the family through hard times. Matching family tree profiles for Douglas Roberts Douglas Roberts in MyHeritage family trees (Sverdlove Web Site) view all Immediate Family. This site is provided as a service of SCI Shared Resources, LLC. OBITUARY Douglas McArthur ROBERTS April 10, 1943 - May 16, 2022. Enter '', That would have been a wrenching decision, as it almost invariably is for the founder of a company. Ralph is survived by Suzanne Roberts, his wife of over 70 years. [12] They had five children: Catherine, Lisa, Ralph Jr. (Rob), Brian, and Douglas (who died in 2011);[2] and eight grandchildren. Comcast - the name borrowed from communications and broadcasting - was incorporated in 1969 and began its legendary climb. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Douglas Scott was born April 8,1958 to Joe Nathan Scott and Mona (nee Page) Scott. We would like to offer our sincere support to anyone coping with grief. His parents Robert Max Roberts (also known as Bob Roberts) and Sara Wahl were both Russian-Jewish immigrants who became wealthy in America through ownership of a number of pharmacies, the most notable of which was in the Biltmore Hotel. He has five children, aged 36 to 47. But during the Depression, Mr. Roberts recalled, ''my father died, and we lost all our money. Ralph J. Roberts founded Comcast Corp. in 1963. "Our city has lost a wonderful champion with his passing.". ''We had 650 analysts on the conference call to discuss the deal,'' recalled Brian Roberts, who handled the call for Comcast. When Brian was 8, Comcast was a fledgling cable operator that Ralph Roberts had founded after jumping in and out of a handful of other businesses. Send a note, share a story or upload a photo. '', Brian Roberts acknowledges that decision making, what he calls ''pulling the trigger,'' is something you learn. "He found the buttons to push.". With its acquisition of NBCUniversal in 2011, the firm took its place among the global leaders in communications and entertainment. BigDaddy, as he was known to his friends and family, had a remarkable passion and talent for athletics. In a statement to Comcast employees, his son, Brian L. Roberts, the chairman and chief executive officer, said Friday: Ralph will long be remembered as a kind, generous, and humble man and he was an inspiration to us all. There are too many other combatants, and it becomes another deal. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. People who never had a financial problem in their lives can never understand what terror there is in that.''. The fundamental fact is that people love television, he said, and if you can provide them with more television, they love it even more.. . In a high-pressure corporate world that demands long hours from its executives, Mr. Roberts was proud to say that he was sure to be home for dinner with his wife and children nearly every night. With over 1,900 locations, Dignity Memorial providers proudly serve over 375,000 families a year. Douglas Alan Roberts Sept. 8, 1950 - April 1, 2020 Douglas Alan Roberts, age 69, of Vancouver, WA, passed away April 1, 2020, from complications due to COVID-19. The industry as we know it today that is generating enormous revenues and is the way that most American consumers get their television was invented by Ralph Roberts and these other cable barons, said Josh Bernoff, a media analyst. Mr. Roberts has reason to track the way family-run companies pass the baton from one generation to next. The 1990's have been far tougher, as regulation and skepticism about the industry's future in the face of rival technologies hurt cable stocks. "For me, the culture and comfort and chemistry have always been really important. ''I thought if he was so young, you really have to be helped to be promoted to make it appear that you really are your own person,'' the elder Mr. Roberts recalled. "People often ask me, 'When you started in Tupelo with a few hundred customers, did you ever think that someday you'd have the largest cable company in the country?' ''But if it were not for self-promotion, how would a guy like Bill Gates take him seriously?''. Even as he is promoting his son, the elder Mr. Roberts is looking after the financial interests of his other children. This has a pretty good chance of working. I lived at home.'' Upon graduating high school, Douglas went on to attend Wilbur Wright College briefly before following in his fathers footsteps and serving in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Echovita offers a solidarity program that gives back the funds generated to families. Ralph J. Roberts. When she was 60 years old, Mrs. Roberts got her undergraduate and master's degrees in psychology and now works with abused children. In February 2013, Comcast paid $16.7 billion to purchase the remaining stake in NBCUniversal. Word of Mr. Roberts' death brought an outpouring of accolades from business and civic leaders here and elsewhere. That's his legacy: not leaving his children wanting. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Would you like to offer Douglas A. Robertss loved ones a condolence message? In its infancy, Comcast bought systems in Mississippi, the Detroit suburbs, and Pennsylvania. Although eager to serve on a ship, Mr. Roberts spent his World War II duty as matriel superintendent in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. He sold it in 1961 to form his own venture capital firm, the International Equity Corporation, from which he began his foray into cable television. He graduated from Ewing High School and studied automotive technology at the Lincoln Technical Institute on a scholarship. to the family or plant a tree He is also survived by his eight grandchildren. Daughter Lisa said Mr. Roberts was an attentive father. ''We moved into an apartment with my aunt in Philadelphia. [1], When Roberts was five the family moved to New Rochelle, New York and then after his father died of a heart-attack, to Germantown, Philadelphia when he was seventeen to live with his stepfather Harry Bobrow, of Bobrow Brothers Cigars. Roberts is survived by Suzanne Roberts, his wife of over 70 years and an actress, director and host of Seeking Solutions with Suzanne. [4] In 1998, the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia inducted Roberts into their Hall of Fame. . Through the 1970s and '80s, it built cable networks, learned to maintain them, and profited by Mr. Roberts' favorite element - recurring monthly income. His son Douglas died in 2011. As Gregory B. Maffei, Microsoft's treasurer, sees it, the younger Mr. Roberts is no pawn of his father. Though Brian Roberts spearheaded the deal, Ralph Roberts played a crucial role in assuring the G.E. Like many other cable companies, Comcast peaked in late 1993, at $28.17 a share. With over 1,900 locations, Dignity Memorial providers proudly serve over 375,000 families a year. Hard times [ 4 ] in 1998, the two men found themselves in the same as... Generation to next 2013, Comcast paid $ 16.7 billion to purchase the remaining stake douglas roberts comcast obituary 2011 NBCUniversal studied technology... Our company consider investing in cable pass the baton from one generation to.... 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