Mike Bowersock, a longtime reporter and anchor for Columbus NBC affiliate WCMH, died Sunday. He was 56.
Bowersock reported for the station from 1989-1994, and then from 2004-2016, winning four Emmys and the title of Best Street Reporter by the Detroit Free Press.
The station reports Bowersock died suddenly, but did not give a cause of death:
He said the most memorable event he covered was the Gulf War. While at WCMH, Mike and photojournalist Ronnie Clark entered Kuwait at the end of the war.
Mike and photographer Andy Banks were also embedded with an Ohio National Guard Unit in 2011 in Afghanistan. They produced a week of in-depth stories highlighting an Ohio unit that specialized in route clearance accompanying them on missions.
After he left Channel 4, he began working with the Ohio National Guard as a civilian public affairs officer.
Our condolences go out to the family of former @nbc4i anchor/reporter Mike Bowersock who died suddenly last night. pic.twitter.com/YpBxyK9Vj4
— Columbus Ohio Police (@ColumbusPolice) March 14, 2016
Perhaps the highest praise comes from a WCMH photographer, who wrote about working with Bowersock on his blog:
Mike was the best. The. Best.
He was hands down the best storyteller I had the honor to work with in this business.
Any shift spent working with Mike was going to be a good one, no matter what the story was, no matter how awful or how silly the thing you were covering was going to be.