GUNNAR BACK, 77, FORMER CH. 6 ANCHOR

Gunnar Back at the WFIL-TV 46th & Market Street basement newsroom in the early 1960s/Courtesy his children

Tuesday, November 29, 1983

Section: LOCAL

Page: B10


By Burr Van Atta, Inquirer Staff Writer

Gunnar Back, 77, a television newsman who set the pace for the competition in the 1950s and 1960s, died Sunday night at his home in Paoli. He apparently suffered a heart attack.

Mr. Back, a reporter who insisted on doing it all, covered stories, wrote the reports and then read them on the air. That is the way he operated as he anchored Channel 6 newscasts from 1956 to 1965.

He spent the next six years as senior correspondent, covering in-depth assignments for WFIL-TV (now WPVI).

Mr. Back left the station in 1971, retiring shortly before its sale to Capital Cities Communications and before the death of his first wife.

Of Finnish descent, Mr. Back was born in Escanaba, Mich. He grew up there, working on its newspapers, the Daily Press and the Daily Mirror, during his school and college years.

Equipped with a Phi Beta Kappa key and a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Wisconsin, he returned to upper Michigan, teaching classes in one-room schoolhouses in lumber towns. He enjoyed the experience, but he wanted more.

Mr. Back returned to the University of Wisconsin and earned a master's degree in English. He worked as an instructor in the English Department to pay his way. He also wrote for newspapers in Madison and Milwaukee and tried his hand at radio reporting, joining the staff of the university's station.

During that time, he met his first wife, Mary Eleanor Stophlet, then a journalism student at Wisconsin. She later wrote feature stories for the West Chester Daily Local News.

Mr. Back started his career in 1930 with successive jobs on radio stations in Indianapolis; Lincoln, Neb., and West Palm Beach, Fla. He joined CBS radio and was assigned to Washington. He worked there for 10 years, covering President Franklin D. Roosevelt's news conferences and fireside chats and keeping an eye on Congress and the Supreme Court.

He later joined the ABC network, where he worked for seven years. His assignments included daily newscasts, reporting of special events, narrating documentaries and moderating programs such as "Crossfire" and "America's Town Meeting." The highpoint came when he covered the Army-McCarthy hearings for the network in the early 1950s.

In retrospect, he said, the time with CBS and ABC were great years. He developed close friendships with broadcasters such as Eric Sevareid, Edward R. Murrow, Arthur Godfrey and Edwin Newman.

In 1956, Mr. Back came to Philadelphia as WFIL-TV's anchorman. He led the station to the top of the ratings. His leading position held for years, until news anchor John Facenda at WCAU-TV (Channel 10) edged ahead. Then the management of WFIL moved him out of the anchor spot and brought in Larry Kane.

Mr. Back had seen the change coming. It was, he said, to be expected, considering the way television relies on consultants to tell it what viewers want to see and hear instead of giving them what they need to know.

And somehow, the silver-haired broadcaster said, many of those in the television industry had failed to develop a necessary sense of realism, a recognition that they were being used.

It was something he said he tried to convey to his viewers.

"Everyone in the press who is worth his copy knows when he has been used," he said. "It's one of the major elements to guard against."

His work won many awards, including the Columbia University Award in 1960 for a series on alcoholism and four awards, including the Donaldson Award, for a documentary on air pollution in Phillipsburg, N.J.

He had served as a director of the Swedish-American Historical Society.

He remarried in April and is survived by his second wife, Birgit; sons Anders and Eric; and daughter Linnea Klee.

Services will be held at the convenience of the family. Memorial contributions may be made to Old Swedes (Gloria Dei) Church or to Amnesty International in his name.