Oregon Media Insiders

From the Shoptalk Newsletter, April 19, 2006:

"George Donald "Don" Fitzpatrick, Jr., 56, of Alexandria, LA, died Monday, April 17, in his residence. All of us at TVSpy and Vault who have had the honor of working with Don in recent years are deeply saddened by his passing. We have had the great pleasure of working with Don on his newsletter and web site, and will miss him dearly.

Services for Don will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, April 21, 2006, in Our Lady of Prompt Succor Catholic Church in Alexandria, LA. Interment will be at Greenwood Memorial Park, Pineville, LA. A wake service will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the funeral home. Friends are asked to call from 4 until 8 p.m. Thursday, and on Friday from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.

The family requests that memorial gifts be sent to the American Cancer Society, 1450 Peterman Drive, Alexandria, LA 71301. Notes of condolence to the family may be sent in care of the John Kramer & Son Funeral Home at kramerfunerals@aol.com.

Don was born September 29, 1949 in Pittsburgh, PA. He received an M.A. in Guidance and Counseling and a B.A. in Journalism/Political Science from Gonzaga University in Washington, before entering the television news industry.

From 1982 to 2000, Don owned and operated Don Fitzpatrick Associates in San Francisco, at the time the largest on-air talent and news management recruitment firm in the country. His clients included CBS News, CBS Sports, ABC News, NBC News, CNN and ESPN, among many others. He also found on-air talent for programming syndicators such as Paramount, Buena Vista, King World and Tribune.

Talent "found" on the Don Fitzpatrick's watch includes Jim Nantz, Meredith Vieira, Leeza Gibbons, Randall Pinkston and John Tesh.

In 1983, Don started ShopTalk, the daily TV news industry newsletter which began as one of the first e-mailed newsletters and developed into an industry must-read. He later developed the popular TVSpy Watercooler, a gathering place online for TV news industry professionals.

Don was named by the Radio Television News Directors Association as its 2005 honoree of the John F. Hogan Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes an individual's contributions to the journalism profession and freedom of the press."