It’s with great sadness that we report that Dan Fagan, legendary longtime journalist and radio host in Alaska and Louisiana, has passed after a few months of heart-related issues.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Update: KVNT has set up a message line at 907-802-8812 so that Dan Fagan’s friends and admirers can leave message, share memories, or make tributes to Dan, and the messages will be shared with his family.
The family said that they know he was loved in Alaska, but they are asking for privacy and will hold a private service for the family.
Fagan wrote columns at Must Read Alaska in recent years and was the host of a radio show for KVNT, and before that he hosted a show for 650 KENI. He was a reporter for many years for Channel 2, and he wrote columns for the New Orleans Times Picayune News, NOLA.com, and the Advocate, Louisiana newspapers. He was the originator of The Alaska Standard news blog.
He moved back to New Orleans a few years ago from Anchorage to be closer to his aging mother and care for her in her final years. After her death, he moved to Biloxi, Miss., where, after an 18-month break from broadcasting he returned to radio, broadcasting his show from his home to the KVNT audience in Southcentral Alaska.
He could leave Alaska, but Alaska would never leave him.
He had been struggling with health issues in recent weeks and told this writer that his heart was going out on him but he was not afraid of dying because he knew where he would end up.
“He was a man of strong faith, his whole family was that way,” said Charisse Millett, a close friend in Anchorage.
Fagan was born May 12, 1960 and grew up in Metairie, Louisiana, which is in the New Orleans metropolitan area.
He died in his sleep over the weekend.
