Between 1943 and 1950, he worked for seven radio stations - KROW in Oakland, KALL, KDYL and KUTA in Salt Lake City, KIDO in Boise, WIND in Chicago and KMPC in Los Angeles.

During his stint at KROW, Vern teamed up with a man who was to become the most popular Bay Area radio personality of his time - Don Sherwood - doing an early morning radio show called "Nick and Noodnik."

He broke into television in 1950 with KRON-TV as a producer, director, announcer and production manager. He produced and directed local live and videotape programming and commercials, scheduled personnel and facilities, acted as coordinator between KRON-TV and the NBC network, and directed network programs originating in Northern Califoria.

For the network, he produced and directed the West Coast segments of "Camel News," "The Home Show," the "Today" show, "Wide Wide World," "March of Medicine," "Breakthrough," HuntleyBrinkley and "GM-Motora-ma."

A versatile performer, he also did a wide variety of free-lance jobs during this period - everything from the voice-overs for such cartoon characters as "Rags the Tiger" in "Crusader Rabbit" to directing "Medicine of the Sixties," a science documentary for Screen Gems.

He also had speaking roles on such television series as "The Streets of San Francisco" and appeared on stage in regional theater in "Finian's Rainbow."

From 1968 to 1970, he was executive producer of Health Sciences Television, a production of the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center. He planned, coordinated, produced and directed a weekly series of one-hour closed-circuit telecasts for the continuing education of professions in the health sciences.

A two-year test project funded by a grant from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, these videotapes were fed to subscribing hospitals throughout Northern California.

From 1970 to to 1977, Vern worked as a producer-director at WVUE-TV in New Orleans.

He also appeared in a number of television series, including "Longstreet" and "Movin On," the made-for-TV movie "Dead Man Running" and on stage at the Tulane Summer Theater in the role of Captain Abernathy in "Guys and Dolls."

He finished his career back in the Bay Area from 1977 to 1987 as a director with KGO-TV.

Vern was best known and respected in the industry for his ability to manage large, logistically difficult remote telecasts - from "Game of the Week" to the West Coast segment of NBC's "Wide Wide World" to live documentaries on open heart surgery and other operations.

He was also the voice of "Rags the Tiger" in the Crusader Rabbit cartoon series.

He was a member of the Directors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Screen Actors Guild, the NATAS Silver Circle, having been inducted in 1988, and Bay Area Broadcast Legends.