Geraldine Warrick-Crisman

Gary broadcast pioneer Warrick-Crisman dies
(http://www.post-trib.com/news/261308,gcrisman.article)

February 17, 2007
By LISA DeNEAL Post-Tribune
A school field trip led Gary native Geraldine Warrick-Crisman down a path of breaking racial boundaries in the field of broadcasting in the 1960s. Warrick-Crisman died Monday from cancer at the age of 76 in Scottsdale, Ariz. A teacher and guidance counselor at Froebel High School in Gary, Warrick-Crisman took her students on a field trip to WMAQ-TV in Chicago and wowed the station manager who hired her that same day, according to her daughter, Ingrid Warrick, of Scottsdale.

A 20-year career in broadcasting and television followed. Later, she worked for NBC in New York. "My mother was a rarity in broadcasting. In those days, you rarely saw a black woman in big positions," Warrick said of her mom, a 1948 Roosevelt High graduate. Warrick-Crisman left NBC in 1981 and bought a New Jersey radio station but she never forgot her home town.

"She helped a lot of people. She had great love for Gary," her daughter said. She worked for former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean and became a public affairs executive officer with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Warrick-Crisman survived the first terrorist attack inside the World Trade Center in 1993 when she worked for Port Authority.

Warrick-Crisman was the first black to be named national president of the American Women in Radio and Television in 1983. She retired from the Port Authority in 1997 and moved to Scottsdale with her late husband, Bruce Crisman. Warrick-Crisman is survived by two children and two sisters.

A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Feb. 24 in Scottsdale at the Messigner Pinnacle Peak Mortuary.

For information, visit:
messingermortuaries.com