As recounted by Cathy Feister, Geoff’s loving partner from the 1980s until his passing. They were married in 1991.
Geoff started out as a local news photographer in Cincinnati, and from there accepted a job in the Doc unit at WDVM TV in DC.
From WDVM TV he accepted a job in the Prestigious unit (TVSD) based at NBC News in Washington, otherwise known as 4001 Nebraska Ave. This was a huge step in his career. He traveled around the world with this unit until GE bought NBC. After four months walking on the picket line, an agreement was reached and the bottom 20% of the union labor force were sent telegrams letting them know it was time to find another job.
At this point Geoff had been freelancing renting out gear for assignments during the strike and had built up a substantial client base. With another colleague ready to get involved, and with Sony literally buying into his talent by agreeing to finance the edit suite and field production equipment, the next move was obvious for Geoff. He was in his element. He loved knowing how to build the suite as well as operating it. “What a talent!” one producer commented.
As time went on Geoff wanted to pursue more journalism and longer format stories and being able to stick with a story all the way through instead of just doing parts here and there.
With that he had a reputation as the “have I got the guy for you”, shared from one producer to another. He loved all of it and thought he was one of the lucky guys.
He was fascinated with all the new innovations which led him back to the edit booth. It was perfect for him to be still connected without having to haul gear around. He was like a kid in a candy store with excitement of still being able to learn new tech and always wanted to be relevant. He especially enjoyed working on the last show “Top Story” with Tom Llamas streaming on NBC news now. He saw that as the future and felt he was right there with it.
