Dan Casey: A Good Columnist and a Deserved Award

Dan Casey teaching at the Roanoke Regional Writers Conference.

Dan Casey, the metro columnist for a Roanoke daily newspaper and a guy I've said over and over is the best in that spot since Mike Ives in the 1970s, has won the General Column Writing award for newspapers with less than 100,000 circulation from Sigma Delta Chi, the journalism fraternity.

Dan is one of a dying breed of cranky old men columnists in the mold of Mike Royko, Studs Turkel, Pete Hamill and the like. He is a solid reporter, good writer and natural storyteller. In fact when you're in Dan's company it's hard to get in a word between his stories. He's not afraid to tackle sacred cows, stupid ideas or powerful people and he's also not scared of caring about things that deserve care.

I'm not much of one to spend a lot of time slobbering about awards--especially journalism awards, which have been thoroughly polluted over the years--but Dan deserves the recognition, regardless of the form. I'll also mention that he's a good guy, an especially valuable trait for a columnist.