Stanley G. Robertson, a longtime executive for NBC and, later, Columbia Pictures, died November 16, 2011, at his home in Los Angeles. He was 85.
Robertson, who got his start as a journalist, went to work at NBC as a page in 1957, and eventually rose high in the executive ranks, with responsibility for the networks' primetime programming.
He later became an executive for Columbia Pictures, where, in addition to his executive duties, he helped to establish the first program for the development of minority writers and directors. Another program created opportunities for minority management.
Robertson also established his own production company, Jilcris, Inc., and created and produced Harris and Company, the first weekly TV drama to focus on an African American family.
In collaboration with Bill Cosby, he produced the feature films Ghost Dad and Men of Honor.
Robertson achieved all of this despite seriously impaired vision; by the time he was 20, he had undergone 14 major eye operations and attended a school for the blind.
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