board….He has been readily available to me. He’s brought wonderful
people to our boardroom, to our classrooms, and lecture halls.
“In sum, he had consistently demonstrated the kind of genuine interest
and support for the institute that few college presidents have an
opportunity to enjoy.”
When my father passed away two years later, in 1993, Ithaca College
history professor Paul McBride said, “We’ve lost a real friend. He’s been
an extraordinary benefactor of the college…both in his business and his
many contacts….If we needed something, background or expertise, Roy
had some connection and he could call on those connections to benefit the
college.”
He even surprised the superintendent for custodial services at Ithaca
College, Richard Coulture, who said, “He was a much more funny and
fun-loving person than I had anticipated.”
A FEW ACCOLADES
On his seventy-fifth birthday, one of my father’s television stations
taped a tribute to him from three rather distinguished associates. The first
was Paul Harvey, who said, “Roy, I kind of invited myself to your
birthday party because you for so long have been such a credit to our
sometimes incredible industry. Others may do what you’ve done over the
years yet to be, but you always have been first and they, only because they
were encouraged by a pioneer who has moved on the mountain alone, then
to beckon us more timid ones to follow. Roy, as the politicians say, I want
to wish you many happy returns and on behalf of our industry, may I plead
with you, sir, to lead on. Good Day.”
Next came a salute from William S. Paley, founder and former
chairman, CBS, Inc., saying, “As a broadcaster, as a businessman, as a
family man and friend, you continue to show a boundless enthusiasm that
the years cannot give. In a career filled with remarkable achievements,
you have earned a place in the history books as the first broadcaster to
acquire the full limit of seven television stations, seven AM radio stations,
and seven FM radio stations. To these broadcast properties and your other
business and perpetual interest you have brought an enlightened leadership
and dedication. I congratulate you on your successes, past, present and
future, and wish you all the best. Happy seventy-fifth Birthday, Roy, from
all of us at CBS.”
