1925-2013
WPCNR MILESTONES. May 4, 2013:
John Taddei, the man whose natural instinct for solutions contributed to the Columbia Broadcasting System technical growth in television’s golden age of the 1950s and 1960s died this week in White Plains. The White Plains resident was 88 years old.
Mr. Taddei spent his professional career contributing to television innovations that are used to this day. After he retired in the mid-1980s, the City of White Plains chose him to be Chairman of the White Plains Public Access Cable station.
Taddei, working with Executive Director Fred Strauss, and Edward Wolf,and Gary Stukes supervised the design of the White Plains Public Television studios at 4 Martine Avenue in the Four Seasons Apartment complex in White Plains when it moved from the White Plains Library.
The compact studio design with its capacity to televise meetings from the White Plains City Hall became a national model for other communities across the country building community access television operations.
The reason the studio was effective, an acquaintance familiar with the creation of the studio said, was Mr. Taddei gave the committee responsible for designing the new studios access to CBS studios in New York. Taddei arranged for them to tour the CBS Broadcast center and see first-hand how to set up the studio, where they could save money, and bypass “the learning curve.” Taddei, the acquaintance said was revered at CBS, where he knew William S. Paley personally.
Thanks to Taddei’s entrée to CBS, representatives from White Plains television were treated with respect and received expertise on creating their studio, seeing how a premier television network studio was designed and run, that led to the creation of a studio that has served White Plains thirty years from the analog to the digital age.
According to a retrospective of his life distributed at his wake last week Mr. Taddei died in White Plains Hospital on April 26. He was born in Manhattan to Paulo and Rosa (Gherardi) Taddei. The family later moved to Brooklyn where Mr. Taddei attended public school.
The lure of boy-scouting took him out of the city for the first time and inspired him to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout. He served as assistant scout master at the Ten Mile River Boy Scouts of America Camp in New York’s Catskill Mountains on the Delaware River.
He was a member of the St. Finbar’s CYO basketball team and a tennis player. He met his future wife, Anna Zaharek on the tennis court. They wed in 1952 and later made White Plains their home.
Mr. Taddei commuted to CBS in New York, where he was employed as a television broadcast technician until his retirement in 1986. His expertise led to his being named Chairman of the White Plains Public Access Cable station at the critical time when the present state-of-the-art studio (in the Four Seasons Condominium complex was being designed and equipped.
His love of classical music led to his devising a method to digitize rare pre-war selenophone recordings of Toscanini-conducted performances for the New York Public Library Branch at Lincoln Center.
A man of deep faith, he was very active in various organizations in his parish, Our Lady of Sorrows, and is remembered as the “go-to” person for microphones and television equipment for liturgical and school use.
He was an avid ham radio operator and in his last years relied on his network of ham radio friends to keep him connected.
His wife Anna predeceased him in 2007.
John is survived by his sister Mary (Lucian) DeBonis of Sag Harbor, NY; his children: Joanne Taddei of Cranston, Rhode Island; John (Patricia) Taddei of Somers, NY; Marianne (George) Wisker of Tolland, Connecticut; Robert (Mary) Taddei of Doylestown, Pennsylvania; grandsons John Patrick, Christopher, Nicholas and Benjamin Taddei and many nieces and nephews. He was cared for by his devoted home health aides CeCe and Mariama.
He was laid to rest in Gate of Heaven Cemetary.
In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to Hospice & Palliative Care of Westchester, 311 North Street, White Plains, www.hospiceofwestchester.com
