Paul Taff
Television executive (1920–2013)
Paul Kenneth Taff (January 21, 1920 in Belleville, Illinois – January 3, 2013) was an American television executive, executive producer, and television producer. His credits included Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Taff spearheaded the funding for Julia Child's first cooking show, The French Chef, which allowed the show to be aired nationwide and launched Child's television career.
Taff had an over 70-year career in broadcasting. His career started during his college years as a control room operator and occasional announcer on WSOY radio in Decatur, Illinois. That beginning was followed by positions as continuity director and assistant program director at KFUO radio, St. Louis; program director at WBEZ radio, Chicago; program director at WTVP television, Decatur, Illinois; station manager at WMVS, an educational television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; director of children’s programs and director of program operations, National Educational Television (NET), New York City, the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS); president and general manager of Connecticut Educational Telecommunications Company, Hartford, Connecticut, which subsequently became Connecticut Public Broadcasting; and executive director, president and president emeritus of the Connecticut Broadcasters Association.
Taff graduated from Belleville High School and from Millikin University. He later received a master's degree in speech from Northwestern University and an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the University of New Haven.
Taff became the first television broadcaster to appear on WTVP (now WAND) in 1953, In Decatur, Illinois.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7153907. VIAF identifies the subject as 314149066347165600213. The Library of Congress control number is no2025126165. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1920, 2013 and 1953.
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This entry incorporates text from “Paul Taff” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.