David Travis, a pioneer in the home-video field who became a marketing executive for several Silicon Valley companies, has died. He was 79. A family rep said Travis died August 30 of metastasized colorectal cancer at the Motion Picture & Television Fund home in Woodland Hills, CA.
Travis was married for 44 years to Kathy Garver, who starred as Cissy on the 1960s sitcom Family Affair and went on to a long screen career.
Born on March 14, 1946, in Omaha, NE, Travis was president of his class at San Jose State University. In 1975, he was hired at General Recorded Tapes, a manufacturer of reel-to-reel, 8-track and cassette tapes that acquired several record labels amid its success. As compact discs began replacing that older technology, Travis worked for the up-and-coming Atari, traveling internationally to enhance the home recording market overseas.
He is crediting with being among the first to bring home videos to the domestic and international marketplaces. By the mid-1980s, he was international sales manager at Dynabyte Corp. Travis then moved to fellow Silicon Valley companies Acadia Corp from 1990-98 and United Mercantile Agency from 1998-2000, working in their marketing units. After that, he became VP Sales at Attorney Recovery Systems in the Bay Area from the turn of the century until his retirement in 2019.
Along with his wife, Travis is survived by sons Scott Travis and Reid Garver Travis and daughter-in-law Megan Stafford.
