VANCOUVER – One of the first men to string coaxial cable lines to TV customers in Vancouver and area, Garth Pither, died Wednesday after a brief bout with pneumonia. He was 85.
Originally a TV set sales and repairman, Pither got his start in cable in its infancy, in the early 1950s with a group of other western cable pioneers. The company he worked for had a number of names and structures, but Pither eventually worked his way up to the top job at what became Premier Cablesystems, which, according to the book "Cable… Vision of the Pioneers" was the largest cable system in North America in the 1960s with 70,000 customers.
Eventually, Pither and his business partners (Bud Shepherd, Fred Welsh and even CBS Corp.) built systems in Victoria, Toronto and even overseas in Ireland and Hawaii.
The company was sold to Rogers Cable in 1982, when it had 225,000 customers – and it pushed Rogers to the million-customer mark.
In an interview I did with him a few years ago, Pither remembered tutoring cable newcomer Ted Rogers on the nature of the industry at a cable meeting in 1964 in Winnipeg, when Rogers was still just a Toronto radio station owner.
“Ted took me aside and said, let’s spend some time together and we ended up in his room or my room in the hotel and we sat up all night with the assistance of a little libation and we talked about cable television. At the end Ted said ‘great business, I’ve got to get into it,’” said Pither.
“My partners blamed me a little bit for that and said you got that guy going.”
"Garth was instrumental in helping many other pioneers including my Dad get started with the technology back in 1954," said Delta Cable president John Thomas in an e-mail to colleagues yesterday. 
"Many of you will remember Garth for his quick wit and genuine interest in whatever was happening in your personal lives."
Pither (pictured) is survived by three sons, Barry, Gord and Rob. Garth was pre-deceased by his wife Dorothy four years ago.
Funeral arrangements have not been announced.
Photo taken from "Cable…Vision of the Pioneers", published in 1992.
