Rich Passan, a fixture in the Cleveland sports scene whose work in The Plain Dealer and on local radio stations spanned more than four decades, died May 4 after a short battle with brain cancer. He was 85.
Long distinguished for his rich baritone voice and unwavering opinions on all things Cleveland sports — particularly the Browns — Passan spent 41 years at the newspaper and dozens more at WWWE and WKNR. His work spanned all sports, though he was best known for his Passin’ the Puck column, which delivered the latest hockey news, and his musings on the Cleveland Browns, about whom he wrote until the months preceding his passing.
Born May 28, 1938, in Cleveland, Passan grew up in Youngstown and graduated from the Rayen School at 16 after skipping fourth grade. He matriculated to Youngstown University, where he majored in English before enlisting in the Army. Upon his honorable discharge, he returned to Cleveland and in November 1963 was hired as a copy boy at The Plain Dealer, paving the path to tell the stories of sports figures local and international.
Whether Passan was spending a day with Bjorn Borg at Randall Park Mall or an afternoon with the Browns in Berea, his genuine care for the subjects he covered shone through. He hunted for small nuggets of information that would inform readers and listeners — no surprise, considering his attention to detail manifested itself in manifold ways.
Passan’s knowledge of athletes’ heights and weights was encyclopedic, his love of the English language evident through careful, precise pronunciation, a mastery of word puzzles and a closetful of cheesy, pun-filled shirts. He took no quarter editing the elementary school papers of his son and daughter — who became a writer and an editor, respectively — using a red pen and leaving a crime scene of notes. He valued a strong handshake and a well-knotted tie, the teardrop-shaped dimple a necessity.
His idiosyncrasies went well beyond grip strength and neckwear. A pungent odor on a school field trip to a dairy ruined cheese for him, to the point he would order his pizzas “Diablo style”: cheeseless, with only a red blanket of sauce and pepperoni. In the sour, he always found the sweet: Nothing tickled his palate like Key lime and lemon meringue pies.
Affectionately called “Whiskers” by his family after a Caribbean hawker used the word to note his ample goatee, Passan still cut the look of someone decades younger. He won countless prizes at amusement park midway guess-your-age stands. He took particular pride in his fitness and remained perhaps the last devoted user of the HealthRider.
Upon his retirement in 2004, Passan and his wife, Debbie, moved to Goodyear, Arizona. For nearly a decade, he served as the public address voice for the Indians and Reds at Goodyear Ballpark. He wrote about the Browns for the Orange and Brown Report and later ran a blog that teemed with institutional and cultural knowledge. Few others could quote a Longfellow poem and Kevin Stefanski in the same story.
For all the joy Passan’s work brought him, he was happiest when surrounded by family. He spent his retirement traveling the world with Debbie on cruise ships. He spent a week annually with Debbie and their grandson Luke at the majestic Sprucedale Ranch in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona. He cherished FaceTime sessions during which he would read books to his grandchildren Leo and Bronwen, and others during which he would talk sports and politics with another grandson, Jack. For more than 30 years, he proudly wore a rainbow of friendship bracelets made by his daughter, Nicole, always sure to request a new one when the current one was down to its last strand. He lived vicariously through his son, Jeff, who continued the Passan tradition of writing about sports.
More than anything, Passan loved to laugh. When something struck him as particularly funny, he could not stop. The cackling would redden his face, turn words to wheezes and eventually materialize into tears — same as the ones being shed by those mourning a profound loss.
Passan is survived by his wife of 47 years, Debbie; son, Jeff (Sara) Passan; daughter, Nicole (Aaron) Atlas; and grandchildren Jack Passan, Luke Passan, Leo Atlas and Bronwen Atlas. He will be honored at a memorial service Wednesday, May 8, 11 a.m., at Berkowitz-Kumin-Bookatz Memorial Chapel, 1985 S. Taylor Road, Cleveland Heights. Interment Mt. Olive Cemetery. Family will receive visitors at 2903 Washington Blvd., Cleveland Hts., after service until 5 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the American Brain Tumor Association (www.abta.org), the National Brain Tumor Society (www.braintumor.org) or the Nicole Hazen Fund For Hope, which raises money for brain cancer research (https://www.mlb.com/dbacks/community/foundation/nicole-hazen-fund-for-hope).
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