Leghorn to Receive Special Vanguard for His Efforts in Founding CableLabs®
The Vanguard Awards are the most prestigious awards presented by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA). The award will be presented during a ceremony Tuesday May 20 during the The Cable Show 2008 in New Orleans.
“Dick Leghorn is a true visionary who conceived of the concept and value of a centralized technology laboratory for the cable industry - and who was singularly committed to making CableLabs a reality,” said Dr. Richard R. Green, CableLabs President and CEO for throughout its 20 years of existence. “This recognition is a fitting tribute for the remarkable success of Dick's dream. I am extremely pleased that the industry is recognizing Dick for his work on its behalf,” he added.
“I also wish to congratulate Dick Leghorn on this well-deserved honor,” said CableLabs Board Chairman Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation. “Dick's vision has been instrumental in making our industry what it is today. The product innovations we're able to offer consumers for video, voice and Internet—and the new business opportunities that have arisen from CableLabs' efforts over the last 20 years—would not have been possible without his leadership.”
Beginning in 1984 and for the next few years Leghorn worked with the NCTA Board of Directors toward creating an entity that would plan, introduce and help develop new and innovative technologies for the cable industry. He personally funded a significant study by RAND Corporation that led to the structuring and establishment of CableLabs in 1988. He now serves as Director Emeritus on the CableLabs Board of Directors.
Since its founding, CableLabs has played a major role in the industry's move to digital technology. It also created standards-based high speed Internet and digital voice businesses through the Data over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS®) and PacketCable™ initiatives, and facilitated the industry's move forward with interactive digital video under the tru2way™ brand.
Leghorn became a cable operator and a major participant in cable's first fight against must-carry regulations and lobbied the industry to establish a research and development laboratory. He began acquiring cable systems in 1966 after he had difficulty attempting to view over-the-air television signals from Boston stations at his home in Hyannis, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He ultimately owned nine cable systems, the last of which he sold in 1985.
A graduate of MIT, Leghorn is a retired Colonel of the USAF Reserve who served as a combat reconnaissance pilot. Following World War II he organized the Reconnaissance Systems Branch at Wright Air Development Center, Ohio, before transferring to the R&D planning staff at the Pentagon. Upon leaving the service he created a company named Itek that developed and built the photographic system of the CIA's top secret Corona program of satellite reconnaissance of the USSR between 1960 and 1972.
Leghorn was recently honored by the Air Force by being inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame.