Ted Rogers built Rogers Communications into a leader in wireless telecommunications, cable television, broadcasting, publishing and more. Rogers’ name is synonymous with innovative, high-quality communications products across Canada.
Ted Rogers belongs to a select group of sons and daughters whose achievements exceeded those of their famous parents. His father, Edward Rogers Sr., was hailed around the world in the early 20th century as a “boy genius” and he went on to invent the electrical plug-in radio and work on other devices that are now part of our daily lives, from television to radar. Mr. Rogers Sr. died in 1939 at age 38. “I was five years old when he died,” Ted Rogers said. “And from then on my mother instilled in me a great capacity to work and rebuild what had been lost and never, ever give up.
That he did. Rogers Communications owns Canada’s largest wireless telecommunications and cable companies, the Toronto Blue Jays and Rogers Centre, 52 radio stations, several television properties and more than 70 consumer and trade magazines.
Forbes magazine once called him “Canada’s most obsessed-about media mogul” and a “Lion in Winter.” But for an eternal optimist like Ted Rogers, there really was only Spring and Summer—and the next big deal he could do or the next great innovation he could bring to market—from FM radio and crystal clear cable TV reception in the 1960s to cellular phones in the 1980s to today’s high-speed Internet to the home and wireless email, video and web browsing to the handset.
In 1990, Ted Rogers was made an Officer of The Order of Canada and in 1994 was inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame. In 2002, he was the first Canadian inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame, and he and Loretta were named Outstanding Philanthropists of the Year by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Over the years, he was awarded eight honorary doctorates from North American universities.
A graduate of the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall Law School, he was a lawyer by training, but an entrepreneur by nature. Ted Rogers died in his home at the age of 75 on December 2, 2008. In 2010, he was posthumously inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame. Craig McCaw presented the award to Ted’s daughter, Melinda Rogers, at the inaugural Wireless Hall of Fame awards dinner in San Francisco.
Inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame in 2010.