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WPEC digital content manager Gary Detman dies

Gary Detman, the digital content manager at WPEC-TV in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Handout photo, courtesy WPEC-TV; Graphic by The Desk)
Gary Detman, the digital content manager at WPEC-TV in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Handout photo, courtesy WPEC-TV; Graphic by The Desk)

Gary Detman, the digital news manager at South Florida CBS affiliate WPEC, died this week following a medical emergency.

Detman’s death was announced in a brief video message aired by WPEC (Channel 12) at the end of a newscast on Friday and posted to social media the same day. His passing occurred the previous day, according to two colleagues with knowledge of the situation.

The precise medical emergency that led to Detman’s passing has not been made public.

Detman, 53, joined WPEC as a digital content producer in 2014 and quickly grew the station’s website and associated digital properties to one of the strongest local news products in the West Palm Beach market.

Prior to joining WPEC, Detman held various newsroom jobs at TV stations in Jacksonville, Cleveland and Denver. He began his career as an intern at KUSA (Channel 9, NBC) in Denver while attending the University of Colorado.

Detman received numerous Emmy Awards for his reporting at WPEC, including an Emmy for the documentary “50 Years on Channel 12” and a separate Emmy for breaking news after covering a shootout involving a local serial killer. He also helped WPEC earn an Edward R. Murrow Award for a breaking news story on an Amtrak train crash.

Sandy Collier, the CEO of “Hey Sandy! PR” in West Palm Beach, wrote on Facebook about the passing of the love of her life.

“He made me happy, I made him happy, he made my kids happy, he made his friends happy,” Collier wrote. “I don’t understand why he was taken. My heart is in pieces.”

Memorial arrangements were not available as of Saturday morning.

WPEC is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group.