Gary Papa Tribute

from PhillyNews.com

The WPVI-TV (Channel 6) sports director whose six-year battle with prostate cancer ended yesterday afternoon with his death at age 54, didn't just fight the good fight. He fought it in public.

For the region, Papa became the face of someone living with cancer, not merely suffering from it. Showing up on camera without hair when he was undergoing treatment, Papa used his cancer as an impetus to educate others about the disease and to raise money for research.

"He's a profile of courage," Scott Palmer, a former Channel 6 colleague who now works as director of public affairs for the Phillies, said yesterday.

"To go through what he has gone through in the last couple of years, and more so the last couple of months, is extraordinary, but to do that publicly, it's incredible," Palmer said. "Through it all, he's been a model of courage and enthusiasm, which he's always had, but has continued to have through this time."

Papa, who last appeared on air May 13, is survived by his wife, Kathleen, and their two young sons, Nathaniel and Tucker. He had been at home as recently as last week, a Channel 6 spokeswoman said. He died at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.