David Greenspun, Las Vegas television pioneer, dies at 86

Monday, June 12, 2000 | 11:19 a.m.

David G. Greenspun, who helped bring the first television signals to the Las Vegas Valley in the 1950s by hiking to the top of Angel Peak with a 200-pound transmitter on his back, died Sunday. He was 86.

Greenspun, a founder of KLAS Channel 8, the brother of late Las Vegas Sun Editor/Publisher Herman M. "Hank" Greenspun and a longtime vice president of the newspaper, died at MountainView Hospital from complications of a rare blood cancer that he battled for 10 years.

Services for the Las Vegas resident of 47 years are pending.

"My Uncle Dave lived a long and very rich life -- rich with friends, rich with family and rich with the ability to care about others more than he cared about himself," Sun President and Editor Brian Greenspun said.

"When it would have been easier for him to pass away sooner, he hung on to life just so he could give his (out-of-town) loved ones a chance to come and say goodbye to him. Even at the end he cared more about others than himself."

Former two-term Nevada Gov. Mike O'Callaghan, chairman and executive editor of the Sun, recalled that when he first met Greenspun, he did not look the part of a television executive.

"I first met Dave when he was directing cameras at Channel 8," O'Callaghan said.

"It was always a pleasure to be in Dave's company. His depth and knowledge of world events always made him an interesting conversationalist. That's what made him a most valuable member of a news organization."

When doctors diagnosed Greenspun with cancer in 1990, they gave him, at best, three years to live. But he survived to see so much more, including his 1998 induction into the Channel 8 Hall of Fame, alongside his brother Hank and the late billionaire Howard Hughes, who bought the TV station from the Greenspuns.

David called that honor one of the proudest moments of his life.

Greenspun fell ill on May 27, the day he and wife, Belle, celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary. He was rushed to the hospital by his daughter, longtime Sun receptionist Lynn Silva.

"My father absolutely idolized his brother and was content to watch Hank take the spotlight -- something my father never wanted," Silva said. "My father played an important role in convincing Hank to bring television and later cable television to the valley. Long ago, my father felt that cable TV was the wave of the future."

On his deathbed, David talked fondly of his younger days as an engineer at WNEW radio in New York, recalling how he cut wax discs for Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Jimmy Durante, Benny Goodman, Harry James and other top artists of the 1940s.

Recently David joked with his doctor about his terminal condition and teased his wife as she fed him. His courage and endearing sense of humor gave his family the strength to accept the impending death of its patriarch.

"He had suffered so much in recent years with his own health problems and the deaths of so many of his friends, including his brother and (longtime local television personality) Gus Giuffre," Silva said.

Giuffre, the quintessential pitchman whose gentle, sincere voice helped make area businesses successful merely by mentioning their names on air, hosted movies on Channel 8 in the 1960s and '70s. He insisted that Greenspun, who had a first-class engineer's license, be his cameraman.

Giuffre would, during live broadcasts, converse with, as he called him, "Camera Dave," while looking into the lens with smiling eyes and chatting with his viewers.

Greenspun was one of the few -- if not only -- non-union cameramen in Channel 8's history. Once a newly hired executive, unfamiliar with the staff, came into the studio and chewed out several cameramen, including Greenspun. Much to his chagrin, the executive later was told that one of the men he had yelled at was his boss.

Greenspun was gifted with hands that could repair just about anything.

In TV's early days -- and without much of a point of reference -- Greenspun built televisions from scratch and gave them to family members so they could enjoy the new medium. He also built rooms onto his home and was constantly working with tools to repair anything that needed fixing.

"The day after my father had his gall bladder removed (in 1966), I went into his room and found him with a screwdriver in his hand repairing the hospital's thermostat," Silva said.

However, 37 years ago, while sawing wood, he accidentally cut off the tip of one of his fingers. He later joked with family members and friends that the only thing he regretted about the mishap was that he could no longer play the mandolin.

A talented musician, Greenspun had taught himself how to play. After the accident, he gave up the instrument. But he continued to tinker with almost anything mechanical.

"As a boy, I use to love to spend time at my Cousin Richard's house, because his dad had the neatest toys," Brian Greenspun said. "The things you'd find at my Uncle Dave's house included the first motorscooters, the newest drills and the nicest stereos built from scratch -- he was a technological genius."

Born Oct. 26, 1913, in New York City, David Gordon Greenspun was the youngest of four children of Talmudic scholar Samuel J. Greenspun and the former Anna Fleischman.

As a youngster, David hung around his brother Hank, who was four years his senior. Hank would put his brother on the back of his bicycle and take David along with him as he made morning milk deliveries.

At age 19 David met Belle, then 16, at a Valentine's Day dance. When the party's organizers started a game that allowed any boy wearing a hat to kiss the girl of his choice, hatless David ran around the hall looking to borrow any hat so he could kiss Belle and then properly introduce himself.

During their courtship, David impressed Belle with his strength by hoisting her on his shoulder and running up the stairways of the New York City subway stations. Following a courtship of six years, they married in 1939.

"Of all of the people I have known -- both relatives and friends -- the relationship I saw between my Uncle Dave and Aunt Belle was one of the most loving," Brian Greenspun said.

David Greenspun graduated from Columbia University's School of Pharmacy in the late 1930s, but worked as a pharmacist only a short time before developing an interest in radio. However, World War II forced him to put his radio career plans on hold.

While David did not serve in the military -- he accepted a government deferment for young fathers -- he went to work in a New York steel manufacturing plant.

After the war, he got his engineering license and landed a job at WNEW, one of New York's largest stations. As an engineer, he not only worked closely with some of the hottest recording stars of that era, but also was in charge of production quality for live shows.

In 1953 David moved his family to Las Vegas. Hank, who had been publisher of the Sun for three years, sent him to electronics school in New Mexico to learn the finer aspects of early television. The Greenspuns opened KLAS-TV at a time when television was in its infancy and offered little -- but much welcomed -- programming.

At his induction into what is now the 22-member Channel 8 Hall of Fame, Greenspun talked of those early days and said he was proud to have been a part of the beginnings of the station. His plaque on the wall at Channel 8 studios, reads in part:

"Dave was an integral part of putting KLAS-TV on the air. ... (He) was in charge of putting together the technical side of the station, including the microwave system to bring in programming from Southern California.

"He installed transmitters on mountaintops from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. When he couldn't reach the remote mountain sites by jeep, Dave would carry the equipment, including 200-pound transmitters, on his back. ... Dave made the station."

On Nov. 15, 1958, David Greenspun joined the Sun as vice president, a post he held until his death. In that capacity, he served as everything from consultant to troubleshooter for Hank Greenspun.

In addition to his daughter Lynn, David Greenspun is survived by daughter Karen Greenspun-Mainwaring of Boulder Colo.; a son, Dr. Richard Greenspun of Santa Monica, Calif.; a sister, Alice Goldberg of Las Vegas; eight grandchildren: Jonathan Adler, Andrea Ayres, Stefani Bremers, Alana Bremers, Sam Bremers, Erin Greenspun, Julie Greenspun and Kara Greenspun; and two great-grandchildren.

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