LAS VEGAS — Lew Klein, one of the original organizers of NATPE, was honored with the inaugural NATPE Founders Awards during Tuesday’s opening session of the organization’s annual conference.
Klein helped bring together the first formal meeting of NATPE, held in May 1964 in New York. That event had 71 attendees.
Klein always has been one of NATPE’s most active supporters, serving as president in 1969 and establishing the NATPE Educational Foundation in 1978. He serves as the foundation’s president. NATPE president and CEO Rick Feldman called Klein “a giant in tele¬vision.”
Accepting the award on behalf of Klein was his wife, Janet.
Klein served as president of Gateway Communications, director of television programming at the Triangle Group and in various programming roles at WFIL-TV (now WPVI-TV) in Philadelphia. He also has been a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater, and holds the position of adjunct professor at Temple University.
