David Atwood, Long-time Director
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We are sad to report that David Atwood passed away peacefully at a hospice facility on August 19, 2026.
We will post more information as we receive it. In the meantime, here are links to interviews and related posts about David. Please share your memories in the comments.
David changed my life at WGBH.
I arrived in 1973 fresh out of New York, knowing a fair amount and dance and nothing about television. He took me under his wing, teaching me how to edit footage with a grease pencil and a “X,0,=“dellineation system on the 1/2” helical scan equipment.
David and I later worked together after I had two debacles with unfortunate pairings of choreographers and other directors. Freddy Barzyk (the best mentor ever!) came to me with an ultimatum: “This next dance piece has to be a success —- easily accessible to the public and fulfilling our mission to create dance specifically for television.” The result was “George’s House,” a bucolic idyll shot in an 1800s farmhouse in Center Sandwich, New Hampshire.
There’s a whole history of the background of the project, plus photos and the final broadcast piece on David’s website: pinetreeproductions.com . But the major points: David used a portapak to plan all the shots. We were on location with the dancers for five days. Every night Dan Wagoner (the choreographer), David and I would review the footage and discuss it. David made his shot sheet; 5 days later the PCP-90 lumbered up from Boston with the professional crew. Everyone was totally committed to the project, and we all felt “the magic in the air.”
That special feeling continued in post production, where I contributed feedback on visually editing the piece by the dancers’ movement, and David would pull out his guitar from under the editing table to accompany what we just did. The work received numerous awards and recognition for really pushing the boundaries that dance and television could achieve. Probably one of the best honors was David citing it as one of his two favorite pieces (on his website).
Although my late husband, Rick Hauser, and I left ‘GBH in the late ‘80s, David stayed in touch with us and would visit whenever his free-lance jobs brought him to Minnesota.
David and I stayed in touch, especially after Rick died in 2022, with zoom calls on a pretty regular basis. It was fun pulling out our memories and dusting them off, but also hearing about some of his other passions like the time shooting Julia Child’s cooking shows in France, playing music weekly with his “Tuesday Toons” group, monthly lunches with other ‘GBH colleagues (especially Olivia Tappan —- another Patriots fan), going to the lake with his sons, and spending time with his grandchildren.
I loved David’s kindness, enthusiasm, calmness, empathy, and generosity of spirit. I never met a guy quite like him — he really was the Salt of the Earth. And I’m so grateful our paths crossed and intermeshed so deeply. RIP, dear Friend. You will be missed.
Nancy,
I read your note and realized I need to go to the Pinetree website.
And thinking back over my connections to just three shows that were very important for me, I would hope others would comment on the contributions – both positive and negative that David made.
I keep coming back to “Blues And Gone” for Say Brother shot in NYC, the evolution of “Ballroom Dancing” thru its upward progression and the initial years of “ The Antiques Roadshow”.
As Fidel Castro supposedly said “ you can not make an omelet without breaking eggs “, we know that to work with an idea/concept and make it into an actual production takes guts and skill.
David had both.
Along about 2001 I received a phone call from Aaron Pruitt, Program Manager at Montana PBS (a regional radio/television network I didn’t even know existed then).
Aaron informed me that David Atwood, one of my long time friends from 1960s ‘GBH days, had encouraged him to get in touch with me. David had, for the previous two years, directed Montana’s annual production of ‘The Montana Summer Symphony’. David, I also learned, was away in Saudi Arabia, would be out of the country for some time, and would, therefore, be unable to direct the 2002 edition. He had apparently suggested they see If I would consider taking it on.
Now, I hadn’t directed anything at all for the previous 25 years! And the project was not a simple one either — an outdoor full symphony orchestra concert, 2 hours long, involving 7 conductors, 13 cameras, captured live-to-tape, with only 24 hours available for post-production sweetening before going on-air nationally.
I, rather awkwardly I’m sure, demurred on all those grounds, and urged Aaron to try reaching Bill Cosel who, I suggested, was the best in the business. Aaron thanked me and we signed off.
About a week later, Aaron called again. Bill was also unavailable as it happened, and David had seemingly talked me up so heavily that, well …. “Would I be willing to reconsider their request?” Montana PBS needed to begin work for the next year, and was clearly up against the clock. So, fighting back some significant misgivings, I agreed.
There followed months of intense prep work by phone and email with Aaron (who, as it happily happened, turned out to be a real professional).
The summer of 2002 arrived, and I was by then feeling reassured to see that we actually had the project pretty well in hand. And as it turned out we really did.
So now this is a long overdue public ‘thank you’: to Aaron Pruitt, a wonderfully wise and supportive producer; Bill Francis, that awesomely skillful technical director/video switcher; son Sean and wife/partner Kathy, acting as assistants to the director (both before and after the fact); and to Paul Heitt-Rennie, perhaps the best assistant director I’d ever worked with.
Thanks too to the whole amazingly willing and sophisticated staff and management of Montana PBS; the uniformly skilled and sensitive camera crew; all the writers, editors and technicians who made it all happen; and the justly proud, sophisticated, beautiful and largely rural state of Montana, sporting and supporting no less than SEVEN symphony orchestras!
Now the real purpose of this longish script will become clear, dear David – the biggest thanks – to you.
You’ve raced through the closing credits before me. I get to add, therefore, a few personal footnotes: I’m guessing you never knew the above details — and, for sure, not the following. Warm regard doesn’t necessarily involve lots of reportage, does it? But, just so you know, I’m of the firm belief that you richly deserve every nice thing anyone has ever said about you — and there’ve been many.
You’ve touched a lot of lives, mine very much included. And I especially want you to know this; that your making it possible for a now 89 year old television migrant to see that (even then at the age of 67 — and still deeply loving ‘the game’) I had some chops left for a swan song. My memories of the whole experience remain enormously enjoyable, and very deeply moving. I do believe in the kind of magic you catalyzed then. To me it’s been, and still is, enormous. So many thanks.
I expect I’ll see you on the other side of the station break. Connections, in our shared world, are so important, and I’ve always valued ours. Till then, travel well ….
My dearest, David. What am I going to do now?
I am afraid I was considered one of the more uncontrolled WGBH directors, standing, shouting mad directions, waving my arms in Studio A, yelling for this and that camera, and pointing madly at Wil Morton for more level on the music.
My mind was swirling around with ideas that sometimes never really got expressed.
But then you, David, you would volunteer to take over the switcher for my directing and it got to a point that you knew what I was thinking, and you just did it. Suddenly we were a team. And more importantly, long and dear friends.
I ran the WGBH New TV Workshop for 10 years and your masterpiece, the dance program called “George’s House,” was one of the most important works we did.
(I have asked GBH to schedule a viewing. Hopefully we can invite people to come and see it.)
During those crazy days of the Workshop, it was you and you alone who worked closely with artist Nam June Paik and his video creation: the world’s first homemade Video Synthesizer.
Engineers looked the other way as you fixed the interface between Paik’s bundle of little black-and-white TV cameras and our ever-professional engineering systems.
When we finally aired a 4-hour live presentation of Paik’s video art, you were there to help. But sometimes things happen. Paik’s machine produced so much chroma that it burned out Channel 44‘s transmitter. Those were the days.
I will always love you and miss you dearly.
Rest in peace while we savor the memories of our time with you on this Earth.
Hey, maybe you can help God fix his miracle-making machine. I am sure he will love your help.
Thanks again for all the fabulous memories.
Nicely said Fred.
Thank you Fred. In your fitting tribute to Dave you recreated a vignette of a time gone by that we were privileged to serve.
So sad to hear. For many years, I always loved it where he’d come to Orlando to work an industrial show of some sort. He loved showing me around a world of equipment that I had never even heard of. And I marveled at how he pulled it all together, on a monster scale. Good man. I miss him.
I called Atwood repeatedly when I got back from Yellowstone, but I got no answer. What a shock it was to discover that he’d had medical challenges and had died.
Over many years, it was our habit to regularly check in by phone and to have lunch at Nine Acre Corner to trade stories. There, I heard all about his work with corporate clients, his joy at directing some of ‘GBH’s key programs over many decades, the good time he’d had with his sons and his family at “camp” and elsewhere, his worries that rust was consuming his Toyota Tacoma, and his close work with staff and other luminaries at ‘GBH.
From the early days of raising money successfully on-air, David became the key television director of our on-air “pledge” efforts that raised millions of dollars in contributions. At our later lunches, I heard all about his family, his joy at playing guitar and banjo with his friends at Tuesday Tunes, his Maine heritage, or his work designing and building sets for community theatre at 57 Thoreau in Concord. Once, en route to a television job in the west, he showed up in Yellowstone while I was working there, threw on an orange vest, and helped me keep visitors away from a family of bears.
I am stunned that David is gone. He was a great friend and colleague. I am deeply thankful for his friendship, for his lunchtime tips about ways to do things better in television and in life, and for all those hours I spent working so closely with him at WGBH.
Rest in peace, David Atwood. Thank you for everything.
-John Kerr
Well said, John. David guided Alistair, Vincent and Diana with such finesse and professionalism. He was a true gentleman and an extraordinary director.
So saddened to hear this news. David and I shared control room duties for multiple pledge and Roadshow events. He taught me a lot about culture and process. We both shared a passion for music and enjoyed sailing together out of Salem Harbor for quite a few summers. I will always be grateful for David’s friendship, collegiality, and mentorship.
David was one of the few producers who understood the impact of pledge drives. He produced my department drives – mostly live in a studio full of volunteers – to help us reach our funding goals – and we had some fun doing it. David got it. Not all did. Thank you David.
Yes Lo. We were often together.
I was devastated to hear of David’s passing. In addition to interacting with him in the WGBH Archives, I played music with him for about 11 years and he was always a kind and generous mentor, introducing me to the world of bluegrass and encouraging me along my journey. He will be sorely missed.
Oh, my. So, so sad. David was a strong ally and for a time a good friend. Very special. We I worked together on several projects including in those in the New Television Workshop (with Fred Barzyk). We had a nice conversation at the Nova reunion a couple of years ago and pledged to get together but that never happened. I’m so sorry to have missed that chance to reconnect. A life lesson.
I find that over the last two days after David’s passing, I have realized how many of my successes were because of working on shows he directed.
My success in many ways was due to his hard work and TLC.
Thank you David!
Also, Bill…I just talked with my younger daughter, Caitlin, and told her the sad news about David and she was really bummed to hear it. She then went on to mention how lovely, wonderful, and caring David was when Sarah (my older daughter), Caitlin, David and I went to spread Peter’s ashes on the rocks of Marblehead. She went on and on about him…the impression he left her with has lasted over 25 years! THAT says a lot about David Atwood!
I am saddened to hear of David’s passing. We spent many hours in the on-line edit suite over the years while we worked together at WGBH.It was at the time when the transfer of numbers from the “off-line” edit to a useable Edit Decision List was manual. David had “the system” and it was as efficient as possible sometimes taking a full day to accomplish. A small piece of trivia is that we never used a 30 frame dissolve. All dissolve rates were different; 24, 32, 28, maybe 36, When I edited with David I truly felt like we were a team.
I also worked with him on video projects outside of GBH and I knew when David was on the shoot that production value would be taken to a higher level. He was always the consummate professional. I also had the good fortune to hear David play the guitar out at a show and in my house.
As I write this I realize that David Atwood inspired me to be more professional in my approach to production. I owe him that debt.
I’m glad that I was able to have had lunch with him in June of last year.
He will be missed.
So sad to hear this. David was a mentor to me when I first started at GBH. He
was lead Camera in Studio A when I was lead camera in Studio B. I learned much from him, and eventually succeeded him as Julia Child’s director. Thanks for the memories, David. Rest in peace my friend.
Oh dear! I saw Dave for lunch around the time of the ‘GBH Reunion in Fall 2018 and again at the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival in Framingham 2019. I vividly remember working with him on Classic Theater in the 70’s — we shot eleven interviews over an insane 4 days in London and came home to edit the series on the first CMX digital system. He was calm in the midst of any production storm and yes, figured out that editing system practically by himself. I admired his politics, too. He will be missed.
One in a million. Thank you David.
I AGREE with you, Bill!! David was a lovely person and I wish I/we didn’t lose touch with him because he was special.
Bill with a more personal note:
David struggled with health and sometimes happiness. We’ve been pretty close for many years. I knew all his romantic partners and hoping to find the one. His inner drive for a happy life and an already successful career seemed fine. His struggles were palpable; making music lifted him up. He worked hard and loved his family. He was a kind and loving person, always embracing challenges to solve using his imagination and profound technical know-how.