Former C-COR.net Corp. president and CEO Jim Palmer died Friday at his home
in State College, Pa. He was 77.
After earning a degree as an electrical engineer from Iowa State University
and serving as an electronics officer in the Navy during World War II, Palmer
went to work as a project engineer with General Electric Co.
He came to the helm at then-C-COR Electronics in 1954. At the time, the
company was one of the first cable-equipment manufacturers, and it had a staff
of two.
From 1956 through 1972, he also served as president of Centre Video, an MSO
with territory in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. It later merged with
Tele-Communications Inc.
He was a director of the National Cable Television Association from 1965
through 1968, and in 1968, he was named a 'CATV Pioneer.'
A director of the Pennsylvania Cable Television Association from 1960 through
1966, he served as president of that organization from 1966 through 1967. In
1983, he was named to the Pennsylvania Cable Television Hall of Fame.
After seeing C-COR go public in 1981, Palmer retired from the company in
1985.
As a philanthropist, Palmer made numerous donations to ISU and Penn State
University. He and his wife, Barbara, were the driving force behind the Palmer
Museum of Art on the PSU campus.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, two sons and four
grandchildren.
