Robert D. Gardner's Obituary
Born on July 29, 1939, Bob Gardner attended Grossmont College starting as a Physics Major/saxophone player and eventually graduating from San Diego State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in television producing and directing, with a minor in cinematography.Bob begin his television career in 1959 shooting local and national news events for KFMB TV-8 CBS, winning many local, national and international awards for his still and motion picture photo skills. Little known fact, Bob was one of Regis Philbin’s first cameramen.In 1985, in the Nikon International photo contest, out of 37,000 entries, Bob was awarded 3rd place in the world in Black & White photography. Bob had his work published in Time, Newsweek and on the CBS Television Network worldwide Bob was said to always have good news sense and a quick eye, in fact he was the only news photographer to capture the Blue Angel crash at Miramar, winning the National Associated Press Award in 1978.At age 24, he became the youngest Director of Photography of a national CBS Network television show, ZOORAMA, filmed at the San Diego Zoo. After 19 years, Bob left local TV to start his own full service advertising and public relations agency, GARDNER & ASSOCIATES in 1978. Along with Terry Williams, Bob produced effective and compelling television programming, documentaries, corporate communications, feature films, commercials, educational programming, training, marketing, fund raising, virtually every type of film and video product for a wide ranging list of clients world-wide. Bob was also 2nd unit Director of Photography on two Hollywood feature film.In a career that spanned over 60 years, Bob won many local, national and international awards including being named in Who’s Who in the West, 1985 and 1991-85, the Sylvania Award for Children’s Programming for “Zoorama”, 8 Homburg awards, an International Broadcasting Award from the Hollywood Radio and Television Society, The “Andy” Award from the Ad Club of New York, and a record 31 Emmy awards, in 7 different categories, from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.Bob was also instrumental in creating both the Television Academy’s Silver Circle for 25 years of significant contributions to San Diego TV, and the Golden Circle for 50 years of significant contributions to San Diego TV. Bob was, of course, inducted into both Silver and Gold!Bob always lent his time to help improve his community.He was a founding member and on the Board of Directors of the Automotive Museum in Balboa Park.He was a past President and served on the Board of Governors of the Pacific Southwest Chapter of NATAS.He was National Trustee of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences headquartered in New York.And he was one of the first to assist Father Joe Carroll in starting St. Vincent de Paul. In fact, Father Joe credits him with much of his early success.And Bob constantly lent his talent and knowledge to help future generations… by lecturing professionals, amateurs and students on video production and documentary film-making, and he was frequently sought out for his perspective on video production as a career.For all he did, Bob was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the San Diego Film Consortium at the 2015 San Diego Film Awards.Bob loved adventure. Skydiving, underwater filming, flying with the Blue Angels, driving with Carroll Shelby in his Shelby Cobra and for many years auto racing as a hobby. Bob was partial to racing old British race cars, which he loved to restore. He has been working on his Bug-Eyed Sprites for years.Bob was very proud of his son, David and especially proud of his grandson Shawn. On Shawn’s Facebook page he wrote: “I owe a lot of what I know and who I am today to my Grandfather, and I can’t express in words what it means to me to have grown up with such a wise, strong, and perseverant figure to look up to my entire life.”Robert D. Gardner July 29.1939 – May 6, 2018 “WOW! WHAT A RIDE” In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to this foundation which awards scholarships to talented film and video students in San Diego: NATAS PSW Foundation P.O Box 80255 San Diego, CA 92138 Please click on SERVICE DETAILS to learn more about the scheduled services.
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