R. Furse; Helped Start Academy of TV Arts, Sciences
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. next Wednesday at the Riviera campus of UC Santa Barbara for Russell L. Furse, one of a handful of men who started the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences shortly after World War II.
Furse was 80 when he died in Santa Barbara on Saturday of a heart attack.
A member of the Frank Capra-led team that produced training films for the armed forces during the war, Furse became an executive for Cascade Pictures in Los Angeles at war’s end and then went to New York where he became a manager for CBS.
Shows under his aegis there included “Studio One” and the Ed Murrow, Fred Waring and Arthur Godfrey programs.
He returned to the West Coast and settled in Santa Barbara where, in conjunction with the Brooks Institute, he converted the Riviera portion of the UCSB campus into a research communications center.
Among his honors were the Diamond Circle Award from Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters and the naming of a building in his honor on the Riviera campus.
Survivors include his wife, Barbara, and two children.
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