SCRANTON, Pa. — A beloved member of our Newswatch 16 team, Mike Stevens, passed away Tuesday morning.

In all that time, he never lost sight of the original goal of his assignment, travel the back roads and country lanes of northeastern and central Pennsylvania in search of interesting people doing interesting things.

He passed the torch on to our Jon Meyer in 20-19, but Mike and his iconic voice didn’t go far.

He still opened the door to the PhotoLink Library every Tuesday and Friday on Newswatch 16 at 6 p.m.

Mike “unofficially” retired a few years ago to spend more time with his wife Judy and the rest of his family, but he was family to all of us here at the news station, just the same.

Mike Stevens was 81 years old.