Don Francois – 2016
Don Francois literally helped build the television industry in St. Louis. He was first hired here to build KACY, the UHF station licensed to Festus. From there he went to KSD-TV, but when KWK-TV was licensed to go on the air in 1954, he moved there to build the new facility. Then KWK-TV went to color in 1958 and Don was part of the rebuild. In 1967, Channel 4’s station owner CBS set out to construct a state-of-the-art facility with the world’s first computerized master control room, and Don again rose to the challenge. He retired from Channel 4 in 1997.