Alan Gerry (born December 24, 1929)
Tuesday June 06, 2000 is an American

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

and founder of Cablevision Industries.

Early life and education

Gerry was born to a Jewish family in

Liberty, New York Liberty is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Sullivan County, New York, Sullivan County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 10,159 at the 2020 census.US Census Bureau, 2020 Census Report QuickFacts, ...

,"BCI Broadband bringing in cable industry pioneer Alan Gerry as advisor"
By Albert Hecht,

Jewish Business News ''Jewish Business News'' is an online newspaper published in English, which primarily covers stories relating to businesses owned, or managed, by Jewish business people around the world, as is implied by the paper's nameplate. The newspaper laun ...

the son of immigrants from Russia. His father was a frozen food distributor.The Cable Center: "Alan Gerry - Founder and Chairman, Cablevision Industries, 2000 Cable Hall of Fame"
retrieved July 30, 2013 After high school, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps where he was placed in the electronics program and afterward he studied television repair on the

G.I. Bill The G.I. Bill, formally the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I. (military), G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in ...

Career

In 1951,BusinessWeek: "Alan Gerry's Woodstock Notion"
March 21, 1999 he started a television sales, installation and repair business in a converted grain elevator in his hometown. Concerned with the poor reception in his hometown, which impacted television sales due to the mountainous terrain, he installed antennas on the top of many of the surrounding mountains in order to provide reception to the people who lived in the valleys or lived on the hillsides not facing New York City. In 1956, he convinced seven local businessmen to invest in starting a local

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

system utilizing large "community antennas" on mountaintops which gathered the signal and then transferred it via cable to the individual homeowners. The company was named ''Liberty Video''. He opened a store purely focused on television sales but soon realized that after an initial surge in sales, the recurring cash flows from cable subscribers was where the income was. In the early 1970s, he bought out his original partners and expanded into Pennsylvania and Massachusetts renaming the company Cablevision Industries. In the early 1980s, he installed the East Coast's first high-powered microwave delivery system, creating 100,000 house sub-clusters. Thereafter, he expanded into Florida, the Carolinas and the Mid-Atlantic States and was one of the first cable operators to deploy fiber optic cable. In 1996, he sold Cablevision Industries - then the 8th largest cable company and the largest privately owned cable company in the United States with 64 cable systems covering 1.3 million subscribers in 18 statesBethel Woods Center: "Alan Gerry Bio"
retrieved July 30, 2013 - to

Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, o ...

for $2.7 billion, Gerry founded and presently serves as chairman and CEO of Granite Associates, L.P., a diversified investment company focused on start up companies involved in telephony and communications.

Philanthropy and accolades

Gerry created the Gerry Foundation, an organization established to stimulate economic activity and revitalization in

Sullivan County, New York Sullivan County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 78,624. The county seat is Monticello. The county's name honors Major General John Sullivan, who was labeled at the time as a hero in th ...

. Gerry purchased and resurrected the original 1969

Woodstock Festival The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. Billed as "a ...

site, naming it the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in

Bethel, New York Bethel is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Sullivan County, New York, United States. The population was estimated at 3,959 in 2020 United States census, 2020. The town received worldwide attention after it served as the locati ...

. Gerry donated $10 million to the National Cable Center in Denver. Gerry endowed a chair of orthopedic surgery at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

, established the Paul Gerry Dialysis Center in Sayre, Pennsylvania, funded the addition of a wing on his local hospital, and is involved in a program at Boston University to find a cure for

amyloidosis Amyloidosis is a group of diseases in which abnormal proteins, known as amyloid fibrils, build up in tissue. There are several non-specific and vague signs and symptoms associated with amyloidosis. These include fatigue, peripheral edema, weigh ...

. In 1995, Gerry was awarded the Vanguard Award, cable television's honor for distinguished leadership. In 1998, he received the Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a nonprofit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest-achieving people in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet one ano ...

. In 2000, he was inducted into the Cable Television Hall of Fame. Gerry received the Entrepreneur-of-the-Year Award from the New England chapter of the Institute of American Entrepreneurs, the Distinguished Citizen Award from the

Boy Scouts of America Scouting America is the largest scouting organization and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with over 1 million youth, including nearly 200,000 female participants. Founded as the Boy Sco ...

, and the Americanism Award from the Anti-Defamation League. He has received an Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration from

Roger Williams University Roger Williams University (RWU) is a private university in Bristol, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1956, it was named for theologian and Rhode Island cofounder Roger Williams. The school enrolled approximately 4,400 undergraduate and ...

and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the

State University of New York The State University of New York (SUNY ) is a system of Public education, public colleges and universities in the New York (state), State of New York. It is one of the List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, larges ...

. In 2014, Gerry donated $5 million for the renovations to Newhouse 2 complex at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

Personal life

He is married to Sandra Gerry, an educator and former teacher; they have two daughters and a son: Annelise Gerry, Robyn Gerry, and Adam Gerry.Gulf Shore Life: "From the Editor: Getting to Know Our Models" by David Sendler
July 2013

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gerry, Alan 1929 births Jewish American military personnel American philanthropists Living people American company founders American billionaires People from Liberty, New York Philanthropists from New York (state) 21st-century American Jews