Gunn, Hartford N., Jr., 1927-1986

Hartford N. Gunn Jr.; (born 1927, died 1986, Port Washington, New York, Boston, Massachusetts); was the founding President of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).In 1969 as manager of WBGH-TV Gunn invited Fred Rogers to accompany him and testify before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications in support of the full funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

In 1970 he was chosen as the first president of the Public Broadcasting Service, at least in part due to his “widely acknowledged success in the 1960s at the Boston television station WGBH.” At the time he started (after receiving an MBA at the Harvard Business School in 1951), WGBH was an FM radio station. He helped it add the television station there and became the general manager. (Note: The LA Times reported he started in 1952, a year after he graduated)

Gunn became vice-chairman of PBS in 1976. He was general manager of KCET, (at the time it was the public TV station in Los Angeles) from 1979 until 1983. Before his death he worked as a public television consultant in Annapolis, Maryland where he had lived.

Gunn died of cancer at Massachusetts General Hospital at the age of 59.

Hartford N. Gunn, Jr.; born 1926, died 1986.

Hartford N. Gunn, Jr.; born 1926 in Port Washington, Long Island, NY; died 2 January 1986 at Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, Mass.). Earned MBA from Harvard University in 1951.