Clifford ‘Sequential Color’ Benham, 78, of West Grove, Pennsylvania passed away in his sleep on the 13th of April 2023 at a friend’s home in Southern Maryland, after a brief fight with colorectal cancer.
He was born on January 3rd, 1945 in St Petersburg, FL to Clifford B. Benham and Thelma A. Ham.
A lifelong tinkerer, he obtained his bachelor’s degree in broadcast engineering at St Petersburg Junior College before beginning his career in television with WLCY Channel 10 (later changed to WTSP 10). He also worked for a time at channel 13, WTVT. He relocated to West Grove, PA around 1985 to take a position at QVC. There Cliff was responsible for the very first telecasts of QVC being a success and remained with the company for 20 years, leaving in 2006 as chief engineer. He then worked briefly at Comcast as director of broadcast engineering, before fully retiring around 2012.
In retirement he contributed to the hobby of television collecting by giving presentations covering the early years of color broadcasting systems, with an emphasis on the CBS color wheel system. This system preceded the all-electronic NTSC standard and differed by spinning a 6-segmented disc with primary colors in front of a black and white screen to create color images. By contrast, the all-electronic NTSC standard used a shadow mask picture tube having the 3 primary colored phosphors inside the tube itself.
Cliff is survived by his sister Bette Sullivan, remembered by his closest friends Terry Drymon, Nickolas Williams, Ken English, his nephews Jedediah and Jeremy, Mary Charlotte, four great nieces and nephews, and one great, great nephew. Also mentioned are the collecting communities of Audiokarma.org and Videokarma.org, the members of SMPTE and the IEEE, and the patrons of the Early Television Foundation in Hilliard, OH. His friendship and his contributions to the hobby will be missed.
Condolences to the family may be made at www.brinsfieldfuneral.com.
Arrangements by Brinsfield Funeral Home, P.A.