TALLAHASSEE \u2014 Bill Cotterell, a reporter and columnist who covered Florida government and politics for more than four decades with a blend of doggedness and humor, died Monday as he tried to recover at a rehabilitation center from norovirus and a bleeding ulcer.<\/p>\n
Cotterell, 82, who for the past two years wrote a once-a-week column for The News Service of Florida that was distributed statewide, was a newshound. He could be curmudgeonly and sometimes wasn\u2019t politically correct. But he also stood behind the First Amendment and tried to tell the truth about what was happening in government.<\/p>\n
Mac Stipanovich, a longtime Republican political operative and lobbyist who was a friend of Cotterell, told the News Service on Monday that Cotterell \u201cwas an institution in Tallahassee political coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI never detected bias in anything Bill wrote and never had a reason to complain about his work, other than, like I said, he just insisted on telling the truth, which can be damned annoying,\u201d Stipanovich said. \u201cThere\u2019s not that many people like Bill Cotterell left in my life and I\u2019m sorry to lose him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cotterell, who grew up in Miami and served in the U.S. Marine Corps after high school, was inducted into the Florida Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2017.<\/p>\n
After starting out as a copy clerk at The Miami Herald, he became a reporter for the United Press International wire service in 1967. Cotterell worked in Tallahassee from 1969 to 1974 for UPI before returning in 1984, according to information on the hall of fame website. A year later, Cotterell began a 27-year stint with the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper.<\/p>\n
During that period, Cotterell became a go-to source for news about state employees and agencies \u2014 a big issue in a government town. While he retired in 2012, Cotterell never really stepped away from the keyboard, as he continued to write columns, including the past two years for the News Service.<\/p>\n
In July, Cotterell received a first-place award for his columns in the Florida Society of News Editors\u2019 annual journalism contest. And while in the rehab center last week, Cotterell was still writing and sending emails to an editor.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe loved his family and his son and his seven grandchildren, and they made his life very busy and very complete,\u201d his wife, Cynthia Fuller, told the USA TODAY-NETWORK-Florida on Monday. \u201cI\u2019m gonna miss him. He was a journalist who believed in the facts, not the alternative facts. He was very strong and believed in the ethics of true journalism. And if he had opinions, they were in his opinion column.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a social-media post Monday, former Gov. Jeb Bush offered condolences.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery sorry to hear of Bill Cotterell\u2019s passing,\u201d Bush wrote. \u201cI enjoyed many conversations with him during my time running and serving as governor. He was smart, professional and never afraid to challenge us. A true old school newsman! Columba and I send our condolences to Bill\u2019s family.\u201d<\/p>\n