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 America 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.[2][3] 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, he 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 community antenna television systems 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, purchased for $500,000, a 1,200-subscriber cable TV operator in Tupelo, Mississippi, called American Cable Systems.[5] 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.
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