Ralph J. Roberts

Roberts was born on March 13, 1920, in New York City. His parents Robert Max Roberts (also known as Bob Roberts) and Sara Wahl were both Russian-Jewish immigrants who became wealthy in the United States through ownership of a number of pharmacies, the most notable of which was in the Biltmore Hotel.

When Roberts was five the family moved to New Rochelle, New York, and then after his father died of a heart-attack, to Germantown, Philadelphia when he was seventeen to live with his stepfather Harry Bobrow, of Bobrow Brothers Cigars. Roberts graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and served a four-year tour on duty in the United States Navy.

After leaving the navy, Roberts held various jobs, first selling golf clubs, then working for the Muzak Company, and later the Pioneer Suspender Company, which he eventually owned. Using the proceeds from Pioneer, he started purchasing local cable television systems (known as community antenna television at the time), which brought TV to people in rural areas, which were then underserved by big broadcasters.

In 1963, he and his partners, Daniel Aaron and Julian A. Brodsky, paid $500,000 for a 12,000-subscriber cable TV operator in Tupelo, Mississippi, called American Cable Systems. They incorporated in 1969 as Comcast Corporation, a name Roberts invented by combining the words communications and broadcasting.

Roberts has been credited with expanding Comcast into the largest cable television company in the United States.

In 1942, Roberts married Suzanne Fleisher, who was also Jewish, an actress and playwright, and daughter of philanthropist Alfred W. Fleisher. Her name appears on the Suzanne Roberts Theatre in Philadelphia and she hosted a TV program aimed at seniors called "Seeking Solutions with Suzanne" on Comcast's CN8 network. They had five children: Catherine, Lisa, Ralph Jr. (Rob), Brian, and Douglas (who died in 2011); and eight grandchildren. Their son, Brian L. Roberts, is the current CEO of Comcast Corporation.

Roberts made an appearance on TLC's reality series Cake Boss, receiving a cake for his 90th birthday in 2010. He died on June 18, 2015, of natural causes.