Woodrow ‘Wayne’ Hassell, 81, who was a technical engineer and lecturer in the Department of Media Arts from 1988 through the 1990s, died Oct. 6 in Krum. He served in the U.S. Army from 1963 to 1965 and worked at numerous Dallas-Fort Worth TV stations in production as well as at TWU as media services coordinator. When he joined what was then UNT’s Department of Radio, Television and Film in 1988, it was the year North Texas Television was founded and the Super-VHS videotape format was being adopted. As the subject of a student’s thesis documentary in 1995, he said he became interested in TV as a career when he visited the WBAP studios as a young boy. After high school, he got a job there in the mailroom and worked his way up.

Woodrow ‘Wayne’ Hassell, 81, who was a technical engineer and lecturer in the Department of Media Arts from 1988 through the 1990s, died Oct. 6 in Krum. He served in the U.S. Army from 1963 to 1965 and worked at numerous Dallas-Fort Worth TV stations in production as well as at TWU as media services coordinator. When he joined what was then UNT’s Department of Radio, Television and Film in 1988, it was the year North Texas Television was founded and the Super-VHS videotape format was being adopted. As the subject of a student’s thesis documentary in 1995, he said he became interested in TV as a career when he visited the WBAP studios as a young boy. After high school, he got a job there in the mailroom and worked his way up.

• Staff