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07/20/2018

Massillon Cable TV Founder Richard (Dick) Gessner Dies

Cable legend was 90 years old

"It is hard to measure the impact he had on the company, the industry, so many people and the community at large." —Robert Gessner, MCTV president and son of company founder Richard Gessner

Massillon Cable TV (MCTV) founder Richard (Dick) Winfield Gessner, died at his home in Massillon, Ohio, on July 18. He was 90 years old.

Gessner, a 1950 graduate of Bucknell University, founded Massillon Cable TV with his wife Susan in 1965. Prior to cable TV, Gessner worked in radio and television in Philadelphia and New York, including a brief stint as a page at NBC. 

His first cable TV experience was obtaining franchises in upstate New York, helping the late Paul Harron Sr. launch Harron Communications' first cable systems. Recognized as a Cable Pioneer in 2009, Gessner was one of the founders of the Ohio Cable Television Association and served as chair of the Community Antenna Television Association.

Related | The Cable Center | Oral Histories: Richard and Robert Gessner

"MCTV was very special to my dad," his son Robert Gessner, MCTV president, said in a statement. "Actually, it was the people at MCTV who were so special to him. He gave so much of his time and energy to the company. It is hard to measure the impact he had on the company, the industry, so many people and the community at large."

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