Remembering Bruce DuMont
• Bruce DuMont, founder of the Museum of Broadcast Communications and a former television producer and host — including the political talk show Beyond the Beltway, and The Chicago Show on WBEZ/Chicago died Thursday, Sept. 11 at 81. The Chicago Sun-Times has more details about Dumont’s life and career.
A statement from the Museum of Broadcast Communications reads, in part: “Without Bruce’s perseverance in collecting and preserving Chicago’s television and radio history, there would be no institution like ours today. We extend our condolences to his family and friends, and we honor his extraordinary contribution to media history.”
In the late ’80s, DuMont, the nephew of Allen B. DuMont, founder of the DuMont Television Network, helped found the Museum of Broadcast Communications after seeing reels of the most important Chicago and American historical moments being tossed in the trash or recorded over, according to David Plier, chair of the Museum of Broadcast Communications.
“Bruce DuMont’s dedication to preserving our broadcast heritage gave Chicago and the nation an invaluable cultural resource,” said David Plier, Chairman and Interim President & CEO of the Museum. “We extend our condolences to his family and friends, and we honor his extraordinary contribution to media history.”
Plier said not only was DuMont a dedicated storyteller and interviewer, but that he gave the world an “invaluable cultural resource” in establishing the museum — all a part of his legacy, given that the museum now boasts more than 80,000 hours of archive footage and continues to educate broadcast students.
“Bruce saw an opportunity to really save broadcast history and use it to teach students about those moments in time,” Plier told the Sun-Times Thursday night. “He just had a passion for what he did and it shined through in every moment.”
DuMont is survived by his husband, Kevin Fuller, his daughter and four grandchildren.
