Bob MacKenzie--More than anything else, just a nice man

He wasn't a phony. He was real and genuine. He would not look over your face while pretending to interact with you. A true, class act.

I knew Bob MacKenzie-- not very well, but well enough to have many conversations with him on the phone and a few lunches with him in Jack London Square. I spoke to him a few years ago and that was the last time I had saw him. He helped me out with a feature report on the Fox Oakland Theatre renovation. A friend of mine was involved in the grand opening and Bob did me a favor. He was that kind of guy.

Bob was born and raised in Oakland and went to UC Berkeley. Wrote for TV Guide and the Oakland Trib before heading to television at KTVU in 1978. He would later become their ace commentator and multi-Emmy winner for over thirty years. He was one of the best writers in the biz and his famous bits on "Segment 2" drew the admiration from everyone in the business. Beyond the Bay Area and nationwide, Bob MacKenzie was a renowned artist, a true TV news journalist.

But again, he was a very cool person. In an era when the worst peeps in the biz--even the most talented have egos up the ying-yang and think they are bigger than God, Bob was a far superior performer than most of 'em and beyond that, just a fine human being and a good person.

He will always be remembered as a journalistic giant, not just his TV roots, but newspaper too.

We will all miss him.