Will Daniel

Will Daniel, founder of Wilco Electronics Systems, Inc. was an early pioneer in the cable television industry and was involved in helping Philadelphia develop its cable franchising systems. He died Sunday, April 18 2021, at Abington Hospital-Jefferson Health, surrounded by family. Mr. Daniel began Wilco, an African American private cable company, in May 1977. In 1980, Home Box Office, the leading pay-television service, granted Wilco a franchise to market its programming to multi-dwelling buildings. This was the first time HBO had granted a franchise to a minority-owned company in the eastern United States. Before starting his own company, Mr. Daniel had worked for Marco Video Systems Inc. for 19 years. It was at Marco that he began designing and building cable systems. Because of his early experience with cable, Mr. Daniel worked with the administration of former Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr. in the early 1980s to develop Philadelphia’s cable franchising process, where cable companies had to bid to provide service in four areas of the city. He was a partner and minority owner with the Rollins Cablevision franchise, and later received equity when Rollins was sold to Comcast Cablevision. After the Rollins sale, Mr. Daniel began a 40-year friendship with Ralph J. Roberts, founder of Comcast. Because of that relationship, Wilco and Comcast created a partnership model where low-cost cable services were made available to underserved and low-income communities in Philadelphia. In 2001, Wilco became the exclusive provider of cable television services for the Philadelphia Housing Authority. In January 2018, Comcast acquired Wilco’s cable assets and invested in significant upgrades to Wilco’s infrastructure at PHA sites. Wilco is now focused on installing low-voltage wiring and design for access control systems necessary for the concept of “smart homes.” Will Daniel was born in February 1935 in Roanoke Rapids, N.C. During his early years in Philadelphia, Mr. Daniel married his first wife, Victoria, with whom he had two sons. That marriage ended amicably in a divorce, his daughter said. About the time he started Wilco, he married his second wife, Virginia Smith, a Philadelphia schoolteacher. The couple had one daughter, Daniel-Corbin. After 25 years, that marriage also ended in an amicable divorce. About 2006, he married his third wife, Lucille. Daniel-Corbin said her father maintained friendly relationships with his former wives and often brought all members of his family together for family functions. In addition to his daughter, wife Lucille, and former spouses, Mr. Daniel is survived by sons Darryl and Vance; six grandchildren; three great-grandchildren, and other relatives and friends.