Jon Oscher, philanthropist and entrepreneur, dies at 93

Jon Oscher told his daughter repeatedly that giving back to people in the community was a requirement, the rent we pay for having been given this life.

He gave generously to Cartersville, where he established his first cable television company. Among other projects, he created a series of museums, revived an old theater and established a nonprofit radio station.

“I know he’s going to come back and haunt me, because he never wanted anyone to know all the things he did,” daughter Lorri Oscher McClain said.

The only child of German immigrants Esther Anverse Oscher and Otto Oscher, philanthropist and entrepreneur Jon Oscher died on Feb. 19 from multiple organ failure, family members said. He was 93.

His parents moved from the Bronx, New York, where he was born, to Chatsworth in the 1920s and operated a dry-cleaning business. When Oscher was a child, they sent him to the Tennessee Military Academy, believing the local schools weren’t sufficiently rigorous.

He finished the academy and attended Georgia Tech, working as a cameraman at Channel 5, the CBS affiliate. After graduating, Channel 5 hired him full time. He later sold film to TV stations, becoming very familiar with different aspects of the television industry, his daughter said.

In the late 1960s, Oscher heard about cable TV and wanted his own franchise. He mapped out 37 miles from Atlanta and landed in Cartersville. There, he met and married his wife, Dorothy — they were married 46 years, until her death in 2021.

He set up Prestige cable company in 1968 and had his first customers by 1969, “offering them three channels and perfect reception,” his daughter said. “No one could have imagined what television would become.”

Oscher expanded Prestige, establishing cable operations in Canton, Forsyth County, outside Charlotte, North Carolina, northern Virginia, Maryland and Puerto Rico. By the time he sold the company in 2000, Oscher’s telecommunications enterprise offered customers numerous channels.

Before selling, he wanted to make sure all his employees would have jobs. The buyers retained the customer service representatives and the technicians, but they had no need for those in the corporate office. So Oscher started a family foundation, Anverse, and hired the corporate employees to work for the foundation, McClain says.

In Cartersville, Anverse helped fund the Booth Museum of Western Art, the Tellus Science Museum, the Bartow County Historical Museum and the Savoy Automobile Museum. These institutions reflect Oscher’s advocacy for making history, science and the arts accessible to everyone.

In Maryland, Anverse built a center supporting local nonprofits that includes a child care facility. Other communities receive grants for “whatever’s needed,” said McClain, chair of the foundation.