Rene Anselmo


Reynold "Rene" Anselmo was a Boston native and World War II Marine Corps veteran who founded Univision.

Biography

Anselmo was the son of the postmaster in Medford, Massachusetts. At 16 years of age he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and flew 37 missions as a tail gunner on a dive bomber in the Pacific Theatre of Operations.
He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1951.
Anselmo travelled to Mexico, where he was hired by Televisa to produce television shows for Mexican television. He wed his wife Mary during his residence in Mexico. Anselmo returned to the United States to help run the Spanish International Network Spanish language television network, and later to co-found PanAmSat. PanAmSat gained a foothold in the television market by providing satellite services for private commercial communication networks, such as those used by international conglomerates to connect far flung manufacturing operations around the globe or provide data connections between a large number of retail outlets and corporate headquarters.
He was a man with "unflinching self-confidence and willingness to risk all in his fight to upend the status quo," Space News stated in a tribute to Anselmo. He challenged the monopoly in satellite provision held by Intelsat in the 1980s, taking out full-page ads in the Wall Street Journal asking political leaders, including former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, to open up the satellite telecommunications market. He picked up the cause of planting daffodils in Greenwich, Connecticut, and left PanAmSat to his wife, Mary Anselmo.

Personal life

Anselmo was survived by his wife Mary Anselmo and three children: film director and former US Marine Reverge Anselmo who was a veteran of the US involvement in the Lebanese Civil War, and daughter Pier and another son, Rayce.