“Herb Granath’s passing is a great loss to Fordham, and of course to his family and loved ones—and in the latter category I would include everyone who ever had the pleasure of meeting him,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “Herb brought to Fordham a steadiness of heart, openness of spirit, and a strong faith that there was a world of possibilities waiting over the horizon. His great gifts of heart, mind, and spirit were readily apparent whenever Fordham’s Board of Trustees convened: when he spoke, we all listened, and listened intently.”

Born and bred in Brooklyn, Granath started in the television industry as an NBC page during his college years and steadily climbed the ranks of entertainment juggernauts, moving from NBC to ABC to ESPN and the Broadway stage. He made his name in the then-nascent world of cable television, rising to become chairman of the board of ESPN (and later chairman emeritus) after ABC purchased the cable channel in 1984. He’s the recipient of two Tony Awards and six Tony nominations, an International Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement in International TV, and a U.S. Emmy for Lifetime Achievement in Sports.

His career was a tribute to a liberal arts education. He parlayed an undergraduate education in physics to a graduate degree in communications, and spoke specifically to the value of both degrees in advancing his career.

“One of the reasons I enjoyed physics was looking into the essence of things,” he said in an interview with Fordham just before the University honored him with its Founder’s Award, adding that a course in logic was among the most influential he ever took. “It is amazing to me in American business how little a role logic plays. It has been a hallmark of the way I approach business.”

His stint working evenings as a page at NBC inspired the young Granath to pursue graduate work in communications at Fordham. What followed was a career that redefined an industry. But when he saw the page position pinned to a bulletin board at Dealy Hall, he didn’t even know what the job entailed. He simply needed the work to get through school.

He also credited financial aid with helping him get his degree. He continued to generously support Fordham throughout his life and served as an honorary co-chair of Fordham’s Excelsior | Ever Upward fundraising campaign.

“Without financial help, I never would have been able to attend Fordham. Supporting the campaign is one way for me to repay the moral grounding I received at the University, which has served me well over the years both in my business and personal lives,” said Granath, who was elected to Fordham’s board in 1993.

At ESPN, Granath backed his business savvy with a sports fan’s enthusiasm. And while his love of sports helped the network grow to become one of ABC’s single largest profit centers, his other interests also spurred networks that would become household names, including A&E, The History Channel, and Lifetime.

In its infancy, during the 1980s, A&E was truly an arts and entertainment network that featured opera from La Scala and ballet from Paris, Granath said.

“It was gorgeous stuff,” he said. “We were the darlings of the critics.”

He also helped ABC branch into theater, managing its investments in partnership with the Shubert Organization. The relationship gave the network first dibs on plays that might make good television series. Ironically, Granath told his bosses at the network that he didn’t necessarily see Broadway as a profit-making venture.

In an amusingly understated 2004 interview for the McGannon Center TV Oral History Project, Granath told Fordham communications professor Albert Auster, “We got into something very early called Cats, we got into something called Phantom of the Opera, we got into Les Miserables, we got into the things that really have over the years turned out large sums of revenue and, therefore, profits for those who invested.”

Amidst the glamour of stage and screen, Auster noted that Granath maintained a low-key demeanor in an industry filled with massive egos. When asked how he managed to remain unassuming and rise so swiftly, Granath credited Fordham.

“Everyone knows that if you’re a Fordham graduate, no matter what it says on that piece of paper, you really majored in philosophy,” he said, which allowed him to take a “bit of a different point of view” and stay focused on what matters, a trait that came in handy in the entertainment business’s notoriously meandering meetings.

“My first reputation was established, I think, when I would sit back and listen to all this babble, and then about 20 minutes or so into the meeting, I’d restate the reason for the meeting. And people would go, ‘Wow, that guy really has it together,’” he said with a chuckle. “It’s a very simple prescription for success, but I’m afraid it may be all that simple.”

Granath held a number of other leadership positions, including trustee of the American Museum of the Moving Image, president of the International Council of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, governor of the National Academy of Cable Programming, director of the International Radio and Television Society, and president of the Veterans’ Bedside Network. He served in the U.S. Army, assigned to Special Services as a writer/producer.

For all his success, Granath said business should always take a back seat to family.

“Business is business. It’s part of a life,” he told Auster. “The things that are the most important to me are the fact that I’ve got a wife and four young people that we brought into this world and they, in turn, now are forming their families.”

Granath is survived by his wife of 61 years, actress Ann Flood, and four children, Kevin Granath (Danielle), Brian Granath (Kathleen), Peter Granath (Elizabeth), and Karen Charlton (Michael). He also leaves behind 11 grandchildren: Nicole, Caroline, Will, Terence, Gavin, Farrell, Benjamin, Amanda, Leigh, Jane, and Nolan.

Zaccardi is the champion of ABC’s fourth season of The Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition, an American cooking competition television series based on the hit U.K. show “The Great British Bake Off.” It features amateur bakers from across the country who compete in holiday-themed cooking challenges.

The show application process wasn’t easy. It included a 75-question application form, a video submission, a Skype interview with producers, a tasting interview, and, for those who made it to the very end, a live baking interview in Los Angeles. Ten contestants made it to the show, including Zaccardi—a self-taught baker and part-time support employee in the strategic sourcing department of Fordham’s procurement office.

She began baking as a little girl. One of the first treats she baked was biscotti anginetti, a traditional Italian soft butter cookie covered with confectioners’ icing and nonpareils. In Zaccardi’s home, they’re known as “Nana’s Sprinkle Cookies”—a family recipe passed down from her grandmother.

Over the past five years, Zaccardi took her cooking skills to nationwide television. In 2013, she was one of three finalists on the Today show’s Joyful Cook-off special, which featured her Thai-inspired chicken and couscous. Later that year, she appeared on ABC’s talk show The Chew, where she baked her homemade peach blueberry pie with pecan crust alongside top chefs Carla Hall and Mario Batali. In early 2016, she won the Rachael Ray show’s 10th annual Burger Bash contest with her roasted garlic and gorgonzola-stuffed burger with arugula, bacon, and frizzled onions.

For The Great American Baking Show, Zaccardi spent 25 days filming in England. She concocted 18 sweet treats, including cannolis stuffed with ricotta cheese, powdered sugar, chocolate, and candied orange peel. But one of the most memorable desserts was her rugelach, she said—not because of the cookie’s taste, but because of the reaction from one of the star judges, Paul Hollywood.  

“He shook my hand and said, ‘That’s what I’m talking about,’” she said, laughing as she recalled the moment. “Anyone that has watched the British version [of the show]knows that’s the gold standard.”

But not everything went so smoothly. In the first episode of season four, Zaccardi created a coffee cake that she had made multiple times before. But when she pulled it out of the pan during the competition, the cake cracked. In a different round, she accidentally used the wrong ingredient for a pumpkin spice cake recipe—cream of tartar, instead of baking powder.

“I was heartbroken,” she said. “But I picked myself up and persevered. I said to myself, ‘I’m a better baker than this.’”

Outside of competitions, she bakes goodies for family, friends, and her Fordham co-workers. Two summers ago, Zaccardi started her part-time job at Rose Hill. She’s brought sweet treats to the office for holiday potlucks and her colleagues’ birthdays, including croissants, pina colada cupcakes, and a white chocolate mousse swiss roll.

“She really has me hooked to the point where I am rooting for her to have a cookbook,” said Janeira Farrano-Martinez, one of Zaccardi’s colleagues.

“I turn to her for every recipe. I’m like, how do you make this? How do you make that? But it’s never the same,” Farrano-Martinez said. “Her hands are golden.”

Zaccardi’s co-workers describe her as a generous baker who shares her recipes with everyone in the office and a part-time baking teacher who doles out advice when requested. And, another colleague joked, Zaccardi is part of the reason why they’ve gained extra weight.

“This is the reason our rear ends are bigger,” said Angela Epstein, assistant director of strategic sourcing, with a chuckle.

After the competition ended, Zaccardi returned home with a new title, new friends, and a Waterford crystal plate inscribed with the words “The Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition.” No prize money was included. But the reason she loves to bake, Zaccardi said, isn’t for fame or money. It’s that her food makes people smile.

For now, she wants her baked goods to reach a wider audience, whether it’s through recipes on her website or selling them at small pop-ups around town. She’s leaning toward writing a cookbook, and she’s considering teaching others how to bake.

She also learned something valuable at the end of her baking experience abroad. Zaccardi had unsuccessfully applied to seasons two and three of The Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition. She didn’t make it onto the Christmas Cookie Challenge on Food Network, either. But she made it to the fourth season of the show that rejected her twice—and she won.

“If you keep believing, you keep working hard, you can do anything,” she told the camera at the end of the season finale, shortly after she learned she took first place. “Even at [age]56, you can do it.”

Fordham students and alumni came out to represent the University on Sept. 9 on “Good Morning America’s College Week,” a special edition of the popular morning show.

The ABC morning show celebrated “back to school” at colleges coast-to-coast and the “Fordham Pride” episode aired live, featuring an ebullient crowd (including the University’s cheerleaders) outside the studios on West 44th Street and Broadway.

Photo by Bruce Gilbert