On July 6, 2021, Associate Director Vincent DeDario passed away.
A DGA member since 1969, DeDario served nine terms on the Eastern AD/SM/PA Council including serving as First Vice Chair of the Council from 2006-2008. He also served two terms on the Western AD/SM/PA Council from 1974-1977 before relocating to the East Coast. With his nearly four decades of experience as an Associate Director working in sports, DeDario served several times as an informal advisor to the staff and Network Negotiations Committees on issues of sports jurisdiction. In recognition of his service to the industry and to the Guild, in 2014 he was presented with the Franklin Schaffner Achievement Award, the highest honor the DGA can bestow upon an Associate Director or Stage Manager.
DeDario began his career as an Associate Director in Los Angeles at ABC in 1969, working on game shows, variety programs, daytime dramas, news, and sports programs before becoming the Associate Director on American Bandstand. After moving to New York, he joined ABC Sports and spent the next three decades working on the broadcasts of the biggest sporting events including: the Olympics; the Super Bowl; Monday Night Football; the World Series; the Indianapolis 500; the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes; the Tour de France; America’s Cup; the Ironman Triathlon and the New York City Marathon; and many other premiere sporting events for ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Additionally, in the 1980s, DeDario worked on coverage of the 1982 and 1984 elections and the 1985 Presidential Inauguration for ABC News. After his retirement from ABC Sports in 2007, DeDario worked on numerous events for ESPN and NBC Sports.
Even in his semi-retirement, DeDario was an active mentor to DGA members working in news and sports and often provided guidance and advice to members with questions about their rights and working conditions. In a 2014 interview he said, “Becoming a DGA member brought me up out of just a regular workplace so I wanted to give some of that back and being on the Council would do that for me. That was almost 40 years ago. I always considered it an honor to be on the Council and I never took it lightly.”
