Dennis Richmond Dies: Longtime Bay Area News Anchor Was 81

Legendary Bay Area news anchor Dennis Richmond, one of the nation’s first Black anchors of a major market TV newscast who spent 40 years with Oakland’s KTVU, died Wednesday, the station announced. He was 81.

Friends told KTVU that Richmond died in Grass Valley, CA, with his wife, Deborah, at his side. A cause of death was not revealed, but Richmond’s longtime co-anchor, Julie Haener, now retired, told KTVU that he had suffered a heart attack and fall weeks before. “He was a fighter,” she said. “He held on for as long as he could. He was so respected,” she said.

“Dennis was a strong presence in the KTVU newsroom for decades, guiding the team and setting high standards for himself and his colleagues in everything they did,” KTVU General Manager Mellynda Hartel said.  “His impact is still felt in the KTVU newsroom today.”

Richmond joined KTVU as a clerk and rose to the rank of anchor in 1976, a job he held until 2008, when he retired five days before he turned 65, according to the station.

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Richmond was honored with several awards over the course of his career, including the Humanitarian Award of Oakland (the highest honor given in that city) and the Black Media Coalition Journalist of the Year Award.

You can see the station’s tribute to Richmond below.