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After a five plus year bout with prostate cancer, sports director Gary Papa, 54, died Friday 19 June 2009 at 2:57 pm at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. His last appearance on Action News was May 13. This is the bad news for Philadelphia sports World.

Mr. Papa, was diagnosed with cancer in August 2003. In April 2004, he revealed to viewers that he had been receiving treatment for prostate cancer and lost his hair as a result. He continued to work while receiving chemotherapy. Three years later in July 2007, during the 6:00PM Action News broadcast, Papa along with Jim Gardner announced that he once again was going through chemotherapy.

Meteorologist Cecily Tynan, a longtime colleague at 6ABC, described Mr. Papa as a “wonderful person, full of life, full of energy, full of love for his family and his coworkers. We’re all going to miss him terribly. He fought the battle as well as he could, but he couldn’t fight any longer. He’ll stay alive in our hearts and in the viewers’ hearts.”

Mr. Papa got into broadcasting while a student at Cornell University when he did the morning news for the radio station. After graduating with a major in history and political science, he got married at 20, a union that lasted four years. In 1976, he got his first job, in Steubenville, Ohio, as a news anchor.

His next job was doing weekend sports in Buffalo. Meanwhile, he got a law degree from the University of Buffalo and flirted with the idea of becoming a lawyer.

A longtime theater buff, he tried his hand at acting, starring in a Theater Center Philadelphia production of the comedy P.S. Your Cat Is Dead. An Inquirer critic noted that Mr. Papa “could be more expressive in both his speech and his facial expressions, but he has an appealing stage presence and a good feeling for comedy.”

He is survived by his wife, Kathleen; sons Tucker and Nathaniel; his parents; and a brother. Rest in Peace Mr.Papa !