Daniel Robert Wells

Daniel Robert Wells died at his Bay Ridge Annapolis home on January 2, 2023. He was 95 years old. Dan is survived by Betsy Wells, his beloved wife of thirty-eight years, children Eric Robert Wells (Billie Wells), Rex Daniel Wells (Trish Quigley), Jane Crowley, and Brent Daines Wells (Rhonda Wells), ten grandchildren and sixteen great grandchildren. He was predeceased by his first wife, Millicent Daines Wells.

Dan grew up in Salt Lake City, where he was born in 1927 to Lorraine Christopherson Wells and Daniel Louis Wells.

His college education, at the University of Utah there, was interrupted by active duty military service that included time in Korea as Staff Sergeant, Criminal Investigation Division. Following his Army discharge, Dan returned to the University of Utah, from which he graduated in 1949 with a degree in electrical engineering.

Then moving to New York City, Dan began his forty-three year career in broadcast engineering with two decades of increasingly significant employment at CBS. He was promoted to supervisor of all CBS operations technicians in New York, was then given responsibility for major network engineering projects, followed by appointment as Director of Engineering for the CBS owned television stations.

Upon joining the newly created Public Broadcasting Service (“PBS”) as Senior Vice President in 1970, Dan led the PBS engineering team responsible for creating the first U.S. television network satellite-based station interconnection. PBS engineering also developed the system of TV closed captioning for the hearing impaired and designed improvements to the efficiency of UHF TV transmitters under Dan’s leadership. Dan and his team received Emmy awards for each of these engineering advances. Dan served as a vice president at Comsat from 1982 to 1990, working on the development of direct satellite broadcasting technology.

Dan enjoyed sailing, skiing, swimming, playing piano, and his study of Spanish. He obtained a pilot’s license. He became a leader in the Bay Ridge community, chairing its community association and heading up the Bay Ridge Trust as part of the Bay Ridge community’s purchase of its surrounding woods. He was also instrumental in the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s purchase of community land formerly operated as a commercial beach club and the provision of land for a community swimming pool.

A celebration of Dan’s life will take place at a later date. Donations in his memory may be made to the SPCA of Anne Arundel County, 1815 Bay Ridge Ave., Annapolis, MD 21403, or to the charity of your choice.