Obituary
Lewis Zager, founded
PBS’s TechCon
Lewis Zager, former director of PBS’s Digital Strategic Services Group, died Aug. 16 [2009] of complications from leukemia. He was 58. Zager had more than 25 years experience in public television production and engineering. As head of DSSG, he administered many of CPB’s digital TV equipment grants and advised member stations as they converted for digital transmission.
A PBS statement said Zager was “integral to the success” of the PBS Technology Conference, “helping establish the annual meeting as a destination for public television technical staffers across the United States.”
Leon Messenie, director of engineering and IT at KPBS, worked with Zager for the past six years. “Lew was one of the good guys,” Messenie told Current. “Whenever I needed help with CPB grant language or strategy, Lew was the go-to guy. He was great to work with and he will be greatly missed.”
Before joining PBS in 2002 as a DSSG senior engineer, he was v.p. of technology at WETA in Washington, D.C. He was working as a digital conversion consultant at the time of his death for clients including PBS.
John McCoskey, PBS’s chief technology officer, said he last talked with Zager a few weeks ago, as Zager was heading back to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City for a second bone-marrow transplant. “Even then he was thinking about his role” at PBS, McCoskey said. Zager had been helping administer CPB Digital Distribution Fund grants and “he wanted to make sure even though he was locked away in New York, he could still communicate with stations.”
“I don’t think there are many engineers in this system who . . . didn’t know or hadn’t heard of him,” McCoskey added. “He was very close to stations, always there to help. A real advocate for stations.”
Zager was born Feb. 22, 1951, in New Jersey to Raymond and Madalyn Zager. He graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1978.
His career began in 1975, when he joined Nebraska Public Television as a camera operator. In 1981, he moved to WETA as a television engineer and then director of production for the NewsHour, Washington Week and other local and national PBS productions.
Zager was a past chairman of both the NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference Planning Committee and the PBS Engineering Committee. He was a member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, the Society of Broadcast Engineers, the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers.
He had recently moved to a home on the Chesapeake Bay and especially enjoyed spending time boating with his wife and daughter, McCoskey said.
Funeral services were Aug. 19 at B’nai Shalom in Olney, Md. He is survived by his parents; wife Laurie; daughter Bethany; brothers Albert, Jack and Benjamin; and sister Linda.
The family requested that memorial donations be made to his team at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, P.O. Box 27106, New York, NY 10087. Please indicate the gift is in memory of Lewis Zager to ensure proper acknowledgment.
Web page posted Sept. 26, 2009
Copyright 2009 by Current LLC