Army electronics experience used to build television business
Gaylen Fink witnessed the dramatic advances in television technology over the last 40 years first hand in his role as a television dealer and repairman.
For 33 years, Mr. Fink and his wife, Karen, ran Bradley Television at the intersection of Arlington Heights Road and Route 83 in Buffalo Grove, where customers originally turned to it as a retail store before mainly relying on it for repairs.
Mr. Fink died Monday. The 46-year resident of Buffalo Grove was 74.
"We started out with the old tube models, before televisions evolved into modular systems," Karen Fink says. "Eventually, they went to having one chassis with many integrated circuits."
By the end, the couple had started to sell some large screen televisions and flat screens, but mostly they serviced sets and an increasing number of videocassette recorder systems or VCRs.
The couple took over a store started by Dean Bradley in Mount Prospect. Mr. Fink began working for Bradley Television, repairing sets part time in 1966, before purchasing the store and moving it to Buffalo Grove to be closer to his home.
Family members point to Mr. Fink's Army experience as giving him his extensive training in electronics. He served full time in the Army for two years, before serving with the Illinois National Guard.
During his 19 years with the Illinois National Guard, Mr. Fink served as a radar technician on the former missile site in Vernon Hills. The site now belongs to the Vernon Hills Park District, but during the 1960s and the Cold War, it was one of several missile sites that lined the perimeter of the Chicago metropolitan area.
As a radar technician, Mr. Fink operated the long-range radar system for the Nuclear Missiles Project or NIKE, before the missiles were disbanded.
Family members say his electronics know-how lent itself to the booming television industry, and together with his wife, they were able to grow the business.
Mr. Fink himself was called upon throughout the Northwest suburbs by customers wanting to have their television sets repaired.
"He had many, many customers who he serviced for years," Karen Fink adds. "He would repair their sets, and sometimes install antennas."
In the beginning, their shop was a small dealer for RCA and Zenith televisions, but with cable television and more on-demand services, including television sets equipped with digital video recorders, like TiVo, and the looming transition to digital broadcasting in 2009, they figure they got out of the business at the right time.
The couple sold the shop in 2000, giving them more time to enjoy their grandchildren, and Mr. Fink's hobbies of collecting and restoring antique clocks and radios.
Besides his wife, Mr. Fink is survived by his children: Kevin (Michael), Scott (Carlos), Kelly (Mark) Altieri and Doug (Angela), and five grandchildren.
Visitation will begin at 1 p.m. before a 2 p.m. funeral service on Saturday at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, 111 N. Elmhurst Road in Prospect Heights.