Roger Ailes Obituary

Roger Eugene Ailes (May 15, 1940 – May 18, 2017) was an American television executive and media consultant.Ailes was the founder and former Chairman and CEO of Fox News and the Fox Television Stations Group, from which he resigned in July 2016 following allegations that he sexually harassed female colleagues. Ailes was a media consultant for Republican presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, and for Rudy Giuliani's first mayoral campaign. In 2016, he was an adviser to the Donald Trump campaign, where he assisted with debate preparation.

Ailes was born and grew up in the factory town of Warren, Ohio. He attended the Warren city schools, and later was inducted into Warren High School's Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame. His father was abusive, and his parents divorced in 1960.

Ailes attended Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, where he majored in radio and television and served as the student station manager for WOUB for two years, before graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1962.Ailes' career in television began in Cleveland and Philadelphia, where he started as Property Assistant (1962), Producer (1965), and Executive Producer (1967–68) for KYW-TV, for a then-locally produced talk-variety show, The Mike Douglas Show. He continued as Executive Producer for the show when it was syndicated nationally, and in 1968 was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for it. In 1967, Ailes had a spirited discussion about television in politics with one of the show's guests, Richard Nixon, who took the view that television was a gimmick.

Later, Nixon called on Ailes to serve as his Executive Producer for television. Nixon's successful presidential campaign was Ailes's first venture into the political spotlight. His pioneering work in framing national campaign issues and making the stiff Nixon more likable and accessible to voterswas later chronicled in The Selling of the President 1968 by Joe McGinniss.On October 7, 1996, Ailes became the founding CEO of Fox News.

Ailes was married three times; his first two marriages ended in divorce. He married Elizabeth Tilson, a television executive, who was the owner and publisher of local New York state newspapers The Putnam County News & Recorder and The Putnam County Courier. He had one son with Elizabeth.

The family resided in Garrison, New York, on a hilltop parcel in a home constructed of Adirondack river stone across the Hudson River from United States Military Academy at West Point. Ailes died May 18, 2017, in Palm Beach, Florida, after falling and hitting his head at his home the previous week. Complications from the fall and other health issues resulted in his death.

Source: Wikipedia