Following the death of sports columnist BRYAN BURWELL, his colleagues in St. Louis and elsewhere continue to honor their late friend and co-worker. The ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH's JIM THOMAS writes of his late colleague, "It was Burwell's desire to keep his illness private. He had hoped to keep working as long as he could and didn’t want people feeling sorry for him. He fought cancer like he lived life and wrote columns, with vigor, an upbeat attitude, and even a smile on his face." ESPN's JASON WHITLOCK said, "He touched a lot of sportswriters, but a lot of African-American sportswriters in particular. I certainly appreciated that, and I benefited from that." Post-Dispatch Assistant Managing Sports Editor ROGER HENSLEY said, "Bryan was on top of his job at all times. And even more so than that, if you ever needed help on anything -- from a small feature on a local high school kid to a column on the Rams’ Dome situation -- nothing was too big or too small for Bryan." He added, "It sounds corny, but I would describe him as sweet and kind and generous. He was the opposite of the curmudgeonly old journalist. He was a kid, and doing sports journalism was a candy store for him" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 12/5). The DISPATCH's BERNIE MIKLASZ writes Burwell "always treated nervous young journalists with respect and caring, giving them so much of his time you'd think these kids were Pulitzer Prize winners" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 12/5). The paper's JOE STRAUSS writes Burwell "had a voice." It "cajoled and it provoked," and it "occasionally challenged sensibilities that needed to be challenged" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 12/5).
