Family, Friends, Fans Remember WBZ's Dave Maynard
BACK BAY (CBS) – I'm sure that many of the countless people who heard Dave Maynard on the radio or saw him on television in this town for nearly 50 years thought of him as family.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens reports
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But Meredith Rogers really did know him as family – as dad.
"David Harold Maynard was born to a very dysfunctional family on St. Patrick's Day of 1929, in the year the stock market crashed and the advent of the Great Depression," she said.
At Tuesday's Memorial Mass at St. Cecilia Church in the Back Bay, Meredith shared some memories of her father, a man who helped to create so many memories for so many people across New England working at WBZ.
"As a survivor of the Great Depression, he also made sure that we had everything that we would possibly need. Though we were extremely blessed, we had nothing really to complain about, as kids we did. And when we did, he had a few stories about his childhood that would remind us how he grew up," she said.
That was the private Dave Maynard.
There was also the public Dave. The man who ruled the airwaves in Boston.
Former WBZ morning anchor Gary LaPierre worked with Dave Maynard for four decades.
"There was none bigger in broadcasting in Boston, before or since. He dominated the business, radio and television, and if he wasn't doing it on the air with cameras and microphones, he was helping someone or some issue off the air," he said.
I worked with Dave for just a few years, toward the end of his career.
But Gary knew Dave almost every step of the way and his words in this church Tuesday were painted with a bright gold sheen of an earned admiration.
"He always used his place in life for good things. When he put his mind to it, there was nothing that he couldn't pull off. Why? Because he knew his audience and they knew they were dealing with a guy who was the real deal," LaPierre said.
After a long battle with Parkinson's, Dave Maynard passed away earlier this month in Florida at the age of 82.
