Let others know about your loved one's death. Born in Trenton, Doug was a longtime Ewing resident. The importance of saying "I love you" during COVID-19, Effective ways of dealing with the grieving process, Solutions to show your sympathy safely during the Covid-19 pandemic. May 2, 2021 The company is clearly planning for the day that Ralph Roberts will no longer be running the show. "The amazing genius of my father is that there was not a one-size-fits-all for parenting. 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. your email below for our complimentary daily grief messages. But if Brian were not up to it, he would not have stood a chance because you can't sacrifice all the people in the place for a poor manager. Even as he is promoting his son, the elder Mr. Roberts is looking after the financial interests of his other children. Send a note, share a story or upload a photo. Let others know about your loved one's death. But they talk all the time. "I think maybe Ralph Roberts is the most successful businessman in the last 50 years that most people haven't heard of. In February 2013, Comcast paid $16.7 billion to purchase the remaining stake in NBCUniversal. They are not your blood family, but you spend so much time with them, you should treat them like family. For Brodsky that was giving up the four or five packs of unfiltered Pall Mall cigarettes he used to smoke. Through the 1970s and '80s, it built cable networks, learned to maintain them, and profited by Mr. Roberts' favorite element - recurring monthly income. Maybe it was losing both his parents before he was 21, living through the Depression, but somehow he became an optimist. There are too many other combatants, and it becomes another deal. [12] They had five children: Catherine, Lisa, Ralph Jr. (Rob), Brian, and Douglas (who died in 2011);[2] and eight grandchildren. Roberts, who also served as chairman emeritus of the companys board of directors, created asmall, regional cable outfit that is now the largest cable and home Internet provider in the United States and the largest broadcasting and cable company in the world. He managed to get a photograph of Bob Hope holding the club and asked him to endorse it, to help out a veteran, Mr. Roberts recalled, but there was never any formal agreement. Once Mr. Roberts began building Comcast, Brian, alone of his brood, frequented the company premises. The Roberts family said in a statement: "Ralph was a remarkable man who touched the lives of so many people. If he hadn't, his father confesses, ''I probably would have sold the company. They have met at the investment bank Allen & Company's annual Sun Valley Conference for media heavyweights, and they got together last summer when Mr. Gates came to speak at a United Way fund-raising event in Philadelphia. "I will really miss him. Your entry has exceeded the maximum character limit. father . He never pressured any of them to join the family company -- and none besides Brian showed any interest in doing so. Comcast, with $68.8 billion in revenue and 139,000 employees, is the nation's largest video, high-speed Internet, and telephone provider to homes. Family-business experts say the family is something of an anomaly in devising a smooth transfer between generations. Flush with cash, Comcast went on a buying spree in the mid-1980s, acquiring part of the Group W cable system. Then, chuckling, he added, ''It was probably a very good lesson for Brian -- no question about it. 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. "The trick," Mr. Roberts said in the biography, "is to make everyone feel involved.". 2023 WWB Holdings, LLC. Many entrepreneurs are very secretive. ''When some guy decides that he is so important that he dismisses Mama for some 35-year-old trophy, then I don't know what is fair. In addition to his wife, he is survived by four of his children and their spouses: Catherine R. Clifton and Anthony A. Clifton, Lisa S. Roberts and David Seltzer, Ralph Roberts Jr. and Kim Roberts, Brian L. Roberts and Aileen K. Roberts and Diane Roberts, widow of Ralph and Suzannes son Douglas Roberts, who passed away in September 2011. The former husband of Linda (Phillips) Roberts of Huntington, NY, he was the father of Leslie Roberts of Huntington and Daniel Roberts of Portland, OR. [2][3] Roberts graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and served a four-year tour on duty in the United States Navy.[4]. He graduated with an economics degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and enlisted in the Navy as World War II was beginning, serving at the Philadelphia Navy Yard for the duration of the war. ''It's a pretty close family. Create an obituary. Today, Ralph Jr. is a professor of psychology at the University of Denver, and the other three all live near their parents in Philadelphia, where Lisa has a design business, Cathy is involved in philanthropy and Douglas is an assistant District Attorney. Roberts was born on March 13, 1920, in New York City. 2023 SCI SHARED RESOURCES, LLC. In 1994, for example, Ralph Roberts scuttled a bid by Barry Diller, then the chairman of QVC, the home-shopping cable channel, to acquire CBS. 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. Suzanne Roberts. Moving to Germantown with his family from New Rochelle, N.Y., after his father's death, he graduated from Germantown High School and in 1941 from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a bachelor's degree. Only his fourth child, Brian, is at Comcast, the nation's fourth-largest cable television operator with $4 billion in revenue last year. Committed to the fight against cancer, he and his family helped establish the Roberts Proton Therapy Center at Penn Medicine in 2006. He was 95. "Ralph was always 'Ralph' to his rank-and-file employees, and a great listener who always checked his ego at the door. In one generation, he started a company that is one of the 50 biggest companies in the U.S.," said Burke, one of a second wave of executives to join Comcast 15 years ago. 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. In later years, he did so with his son Brian L. Roberts, to whom he turned over the companys presidency in 1990 when Brian was 30 years old. Comcast is also one of the largest residential telephone providers in the United States. IN THE CARE OF. Less than $5 per month Ed Rendell. This site is provided as a service of SCI Shared Resources, LLC. Would you like to offer Douglas A. Robertss loved ones a condolence message? After Robert Roberts died in 1932, Ralphs mother, Sara, moved the family to the Germantown section of Philadelphia, to be near her ailing sister. 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. He was committed to the fight against cancer, and along with his wife and family, helped establish the Roberts Proton Therapy Center. I didn't want it to appear that he was just his father's son.''. The son, meanwhile, remains an understudy of the father -- and the father is impressing upon the son the need to play hardball when the occasion demands it. ''We moved into an apartment with my aunt in Philadelphia. In 1963, Mr. Roberts was a little-known entrepreneur who had sold Muzak systems and mens belts and suspenders, but he was ambitious and always scouting for new business opportunities. '', Brian Roberts acknowledges that decision making, what he calls ''pulling the trigger,'' is something you learn. He was always a stickler for table manners," she said. '', Brian Roberts, on the other hand, seems to relish his public role. When not on the basketball court, Douglas loved playing cards, spending time with his family, and helping those less fortunate. And Peter Barton, the former president of Liberty Media, recalled that Brian Roberts played the key role in a complicated deal with Liberty involving the purchase of Time Warner's stake in E Entertainment, a cable-service company, for $321 million. He was chairman of the board from 1969 to 2002. His wife agreed: "The thing that motivates Ralph is not having the money, but knowing that his children are secure. Obituary Roberts, Douglas David It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Douglas Roberts on August 1, 2013 at The Wellington Nursing Home in his 89th year. '', That would have been a wrenching decision, as it almost invariably is for the founder of a company. Like many media entrepreneurs, Ralph Roberts created several classes of stock, enabling him to issue equity without losing control. Investors who know him say he always prefers to remain in the background and let others like Mr.Brodsky, the vice chairman, take the limelight. PhillyVoice Contributor. Ralph J. Roberts, who at the dawn of the cable television industry bought a small cable service in Tupelo, Miss., and built it into Comcast, today the largest cable television company in the nation, died Thursday night in Philadelphia. There is no photo or video of Douglas A. Roberts.Be the first to share a memory to pay tribute. BEST DEAL! There was plenty of room to give the son a shot. To send flowers Brian Roberts countered that other companies, including Comcast, were aggressively upgrading. ''This is a relatively unusual situation,'' said Leon Danco, president of the Center for Family Studies. [4] In 1998, the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia inducted Roberts into their Hall of Fame. I cannot remember a time during our relationship where a cross word passed between us. He recalled in a 1996 interview digging up his mother's marigolds and selling them to the neighbors. 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. Questions? Brian L. Roberts (born June 28, 1959) is an American billionaire businessman, and the chairman and CEO of Comcast, an American company providing cable, entertainment, and communications products and services which was founded by his father, Ralph J. Roberts. He wanted to marry her after several years, but she wasn't ready. "These guys go out there and kill each other!". [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. (66 years old). The two said their relationship had been strengthened by having much to discuss, as each pursued separate professional interests - and also by the collaboration that developed when one asked the other for advice. "We would have dinner as a family. Receive obituaries from the city or cities of your choice. And Ed Snider, Comcast Spectacor chairman, said Mr. Roberts was "a great partner and an even greater friend. ''I was probably the one to pull the curtain,'' he said. Funeral Home website by. Find the obituary of Douglas A. Roberts (1955 - 2021) from Mount Carmel, IL. ''The most dangerous thing is a son or daughter coming into a business where they think they get special treatment,'' Mr. Roberts said. That the others did not never fazed Ralph Roberts, who encouraged them to pursue their own interests. Ralph Joel Roberts was born on March 13, 1920, in New York. We all will.". Brian, born in 1959, was the fourth. Penn honored him in 2005 with the Doctor of Laws honoris causa. [5] They incorporated in 1969 as Comcast Corporation, a name Roberts invented by combining the words communications and broadcasting. Cancel any time, no strings attached. ''The father is open. Anyone can read what you share. ''The children -- the family -- have continual discussions,'' he said during an interview in which he was joined by Brian, dressed like his father in a gray suit, black loafers, a white button-down shirt and red print tie. Mr. Roberts, who had been in declining health, died of natural causes. Growing up with five kids competing for attention, it's not easy, but he put his family first. "He wanted to keep the integrity, the family feel, and the dedication of employees. Ralph J. Roberts founded Comcast Corp. in 1963. It may take up to 1 hour for your comment to appear on the website. But the firm wasn't always a giant, nor was its founder a scion. In 1942, he married Suzanne Fleisher, an aspiring actress from a well-to-do Philadelphia family. It bottomed out at $16.375 last March and has recovered slightly, closing at $21.375 on Friday on Nasdaq. To support himself at college, he took on a variety of odd jobs, including selling milk. And all of them are rich. chief executive, Jeffrey R. Immelt, that the deal would be completed. The Roberts Family Remembers Ralph J. Roberts. Actually, he added, "I've had a lot of bad ideas, but he would never say that. ''There are the families that destroy each other as soon as the father or mother dies,'' Mr. Roberts said. 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