Reese Schonfeld, CNN's founding president, has died at 88

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/28/media/reese-schonfeld-obituary/index.html

New York (CNN Business)Maurice "Reese" Schonfeld, who helped launch the cable news era as the first president of CNN, has died. He was 88.

His widow Pat O'Gorman and daughter Juliette Reverand confirmed his death. "He loved CNN," O'Gorman said. "He was very proud of it. It was a good time for him."
Schonfeld, a brash newsman from Newark, New Jersey, teamed up with Ted Turner in 1979 to create CNN, which launched on June 1, 1980. "Reese laid the entire foundation for CNN," said Lisa Napoli, author of a recent book about the network's founding. "It was Ted's money but entirely Reese's vision."
Schonfeld hired anchors such as Bernard Shaw, Kathleen Sullivan, Lou Dobbs, and Mary Alice Williams. He created shows like "Crossfire." And he oversaw the construction of the network in Atlanta.
The newsroom was designed to be "totally open," Schonfeld said in a retrospective interview. "We wanted everything to hang out. We wanted to show every person doing every job. We wanted to show every mistake, everything raw. We wanted the people to live in our newsroom."

Here is a statement from CNN over their former leader.