Industry veteran Chris Lonergan died on April 13 after a long battle with cancer. He was 54.
The former Discovery Communications executive is survived by his wife Cheryl and their two young sons, Christopher and Grant.
A funeral mass will be held Saturday, April 21 at 9 a.m. at St. Mary's Parish in Annapolis, Md. His industry friends and colleagues also plan to honor the Springfield, Mass native with a celebration of his life during Cable Show 2012 in Boston, according to Discovery officials.
Most recently, he ran his own consultancy, Lonergan Media. Prior to that he served as president of the Italian-American Channel.
Lonergan joined Discovery Networks in July 1992 as senior account manager for The Learning Channel. He held a number of executive positions at the programmer during his 15-year tenure. He was senior vice president of affiliate sales and national accounts, when he left Discovery in 2006. In that post, Lonergan oversaw affiliate sales, marketing and promotional efforts for all of the networks within the Discovery family -- Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, the Travel Channel and Discovery Health Channel, including Discovery HD Theater and the unit's digital networks, Discovery Kids Channel, Discovery Times Channel, The Science Channel, Discovery Home, Military Channel, Discovery en Espanol, FitTV and BBC America.
Over the years, he also served as a board member of CTAM's New York and New England chapters.
Additional details about the event in Boston and the establishment of 529s for Lonergan's children will be available at caringbridge.org/visit/chrislonergan and at facebook.com/ChrisLonerganTribute.
