Len Press, inspired by rural Kentucky to build a statewide TV network that became a national model, dies at 97

O. Leonard Press

O. Leonard Press, who came from the Northeast to a rural, poorly educated state, then built an educational television network that became a model for the nation and a beacon in the state's farthest reaches, died Wednesday night in Lexington, Ky. He was 97.

Press “did more for education in Kentucky than many of the state’s university presidents,” said his friend, retired publisher Al Smith, who hosted a popular panel-discussion show on Kentucky Educational Television for 33 years.

A native of Lowell, Mass., and a veteran of World War II, Press earned a degree in communications from Boston University, and the school "hired him to handle all radio and TV spots for the university," work that he expanded into tele-courses that won him national recognition, reports Jack Brammer of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

He and his wife Lillian "had their sights on New York City," but they came to the University of Kentucky, which was planning a TV station, Brammer notes. While doing a special in Eastern Kentucky with Louisville's WHAS-TV, he was inspired to create the network, and got the legislature to create the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television. He was its first executive director.

The network went on the air in 1968, initially broadcasting weekdays during school hours. It began doing its own public-affairs programs, and in 1974 took a risky step by starting "Comment on Kentucky" with Smith, which soon evolved into a discussion show in which journalists delivered frank commentary and analysis, sometimes about politicians who held the network's purse strings. Press insulated Smith and others at KET from political interference.

Press retired in 1991. He is survived by his wife, Lillian, and their son, Lowell Press of Washington state. A visitation and memorial service will be scheduled later, Smith told the Herald-Leader. (Smith is chair emeritus, and Press was a member, of the advisory board of UK's Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog.)

On the occasion of KET’s 50th anniversary last year, Press said, “Don’t ever fear imagining. Don’t ever fear doing what you think is bigger than you should. Know that almost anything is possible … if you put your heart and soul into it. You don’t have to be smart. You have to be determined.”