Bill Daniels

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Contents

[edit] Robert W. "Bill" Daniels, the "Father of Cable Television"

[edit] Childhood through enlistment-

Bill was born July 1, 1920 in Greeley, Colorado and shortly thereafter moved to Hobbs, New Mexico. There he was enrolled at the New Mexico Military Institute and was the undefeated New Mexico Golden Gloves Boxing Champion. In 1941, he joined the Navy and became an accomplished fighter pilot both in WWII and Korea, retiring with the rank of full commander. Not long after the war, on his way home he happened upon a bar in Denver that was showing a boxing match out-of-state, and became interested in the technology that brought television over long distances.

[edit] Industry founding

Bill took a chance on this long-distance television market by setting up a microwave feed that delivered Denver programming to Casper, Wyoming in 1952. The passion that he felt for the industry led to him focusing more on brokering and investment banking for the growing industry. In 1958, he founded Daniels and Associates to specialize in this field. It didn't take long for the numbers to start adding up impressively. By 1965 his company, Daniels and Associates, had brokered in excess of $100 million dollars and this represented about 80% of the years transactions (figures from www.danielsonline.com).

[edit] An avid sportsman

A lifelong passion for sports of all sorts, Bill supported the Denver Gran Prix and boxers, was a co-owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, and owner of the American Basketball Association's Utah Stars franchise and was a founder of the USFL. With Lakers co-owner Jerry Buss, Bill started Prime Ticket sports programming network in the mid 1980's, which he later sold and generously shared the proceeds with his employees. In the case of the Utah Stars Basketball franchise, the team was not profitable and the league folded, leaving season ticket holders with no games, seats, or refunds. While Bill was not financially obligated to do anything for the season ticketholders, he felt strongly about repaying the fans. Unable to make amends with his ticketholders at the time, years later he located and voluntarily repaid each Stars ticketholder with interest.

[edit] A unique financial institution

In 1987, Bill founded a special bank with a unique FDIC insured state charter- the Young Americans Bank. This bank caters only to patrons under the age of 21, and teaches young people about all aspects of banking and related financial matters. Bill believed strongly that economic knowledge and understanding that kids learned firsthand would make them better prepared in life.

[edit] The philanthropist and his legacy

Bill had problems at times with alcohol and both patronized and supported the Betty Ford Center and helped found Cenikor, a rehabilitation center in Colorado. With his private Learjet, Bill sponsored a successful challenge to the world speed record which raised money for Junior Achievement. According to Stephen Singular's biography of Bill entitled Relentless, while attending a college graduation, he asked the graduate about the business ethics coursework, only to be told that for that school there were no ethics studies as a part of the business school program. This in turn led to Bill's eventual endowment of the University of Denver Business School, as they were like-minded with Bill and included ethics studies in their program. The business school was renamed Denver University Daniels College of Business thereafter. Not having any family (meaning direct descendants- he is survived by his niece, New Mexico Lt. Governor Diane Denish), Bill decided to use his fortune to continue helping others by forming a foundation that supports issues relating to aging, alcoholism and substance abuse, amateur sports, disabilities, education (early childhood, K-12 reform, and ethics and integrity) homelessness and disadvantaged, and youth development. This foundation, the Daniels Fund received over one billion dollars from Bill's estate when he passed March 7, 2000, making it one of the largest private foundations in the country.

[edit] External links


This biographical article related to television in the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../b/i/l/Bill_Daniels_e8d5.html"