Bob Paquette, WFCR/WNNZ’s longtime producer, reporter and host of the station’s Morning Edition program, died of an apparent heart attack over the Memorial Day weekend, leaving for many a void in their day which will be difficult to fill. A familiar voice for two decades since he began work for the station in 1991, Paquette was a UMass graduate who returned to make good, first as a newscaster for NPR’s All Things Considered and then as WFCR’s senior news producer and host of Morning Edition.
“There are no words to express our shock and grief over the loss of our colleague and friend Bob Paquette,” said station manager/CEO Martin Miller, who acknowledged the host’s indelibly imprinted presence on the morning routines of hundreds if not thousands of Valley dwellers, commuters and curious passers-through.
UMass-Amherst Chancellor Robert Holub also applauded UMass alumnus Paquette and said he will be sorely missed at commencement proceedings, where his “voice of authority and joy set the perfect tone for our most important community celebration.” Paquette began his career in radio at the university’s WMUA radio station and also worked for some years for the former WTTT-AM in Amherst before coming to work for WFCR.
Paquette was known locally for more than being an outstanding broadcaster, bartending sporadically in local restaurants and officiating over weddings thanks to his credentials as a local justice of the peace. He was also a counselor for newly diagnosed cancer patients, a role he may have been inspired to undertake after his own diagnosis with and subsequent treatment for lymphoma in the early-to-mid 2000s.
Paquette, 55, had received several awards from both the Associated Press and the Public Radio News Directors Association. Both and Miller and Holub expressed condolences to Paquette’s family, including surviving husband Michael Packard. A memorial service was held on Saturday, June 4, on what would have been the couple’s 25th anniversary. “[Bob] shared his talents in many ways,” said Holub, “and for that we will always be grateful.”
