Coudersport's 'evangelist for capitalism'

A Coudersport native is being hailed for his role in sharing the teachings of Nobel Prizewinning economist Milton Friedman with millions around the world.

Bob Chitester, who left town in the mid-1960s, is hardly resting on his laurels. A celebrated television producer, he's now spreading the wisdom of free market economics in Peru. Not long ago, his focus was on private exploration of outer space.

Chitester, whose brothers Tom and Gerald still live in Coudersport, was the focus of a recent Wall Street Journal article titled, "TV's Evangelist for Capitalism."

Chitester was the driving force behind the Friedman's 10- part public television series, "Free to Choose." Now, after Friedman's 2006 death, Chitester is back with a 90- minute program, "The Power of Choice: The Life and Times of Milton Friedman."

The Journal recalled Chitester's initial involvement with Friedman:

"He produced the original series while serving as the only public- TV station manager in the country who didn't believe in government subsidies. A t i r e l e s s promoter, he raised the equivalent of $8 million today for the series entirely from private sources, an achievement that delighted Friedman."

Coudersport's Bob Chitester (left) was a liberal-leaning public television executive in the 1970s when his study of famous economist Milton Friedman's teachings changed his outlook on the role of government in economics. Chitester teamed with Friedman in 1976 for the celebrated "Free To Choose" series and reconnected with him almost 30 years later for a follow-up production.

Chitester's own philosophy on free-market economics did a 180-degree turn when he began to study Friedman's teachings in 1976.

He approached the famous economist about producing a public television series and was warmly received.

"I was a bearded, leatherjacketed, smalltown TV executive, yet he treated me as competent and honorable, as he did everyone he met, until you p r o v e d o t h e r w i s e , " C h i t e s t e r recalled.

T h e p r o d u c t i o n took the pair to a sweatshop in New York's C h i n a t o w n , where Friedman recalled his mother's job, to a junk floating in the harbor of Hong Kong, a success story in free market economics.

Chitester has also produced a dramatization of how the Pilgrims realized the importance of private property and he has teamed with ABCTV's John Stossel to create teaching kits on science and economics. His current focus is Hernando de Soto, a Peruvian economist whose life has been threatened by drug barons and Marxist terrorists. They fear his messages to the poor on property rights, markets and the rule of law.

Chitester's mission is to produce "an eye-opening look at how to finally make poor countries wealthy by empowering their people," according to Ed Crane of the Cato Institute.

Also on his agenda are a spotlight on Danish scientist Bjorn Lomborg, who's forging a worldwide consensus on where money should be spent to safeguard human life, and a program on the life of former Secretary of State George Shultz.

Chitester has more than 45 years of experience in television. In 1966, he became the founding general manager of the PBS and NPR stations in Erie, which he headed until 1982.

In 1985, he established the Palmer R. Chitester Fund, a tribute to his late father (known to many as "Red"). Its mission is to create entertaining media programs examining the role of government and the interrelationship of economic, personal and political freedom.

Chitester holds a masters degree from the University of Michigan. He and his wife, Carol Lovell, have four children and eight grandchildren.