By By CLAUD HODGES,Senior Reporter
Gary Dean, a familiar face as television anchor in the Washington-Greenville-New Bern coverage area since 1977, has retired from television news.
His last day in the industry was Dec. 31, 2007.
However, he said he will remain in the area because he loves “the people and the area.”
Dean said the area is “home” for him, his wife, his daughter and his stepson. He said he is “where I want to be.”
He said the audience here was “perfect” for him.
In December 2006, Dean was diagnosed with throat cancer. In 2007, medical treatment including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, fought his cancer.
He said the physicians told him the smoking contributed to his cancerous condition.
He said he wants “to reach out to the youth of eastern North Carolina” and tell them that every decision they make as young folks will “affect them down the road.”
As a broadcaster, Dean said one cannot lose one’s voice. Early on in his fight with cancer, physicians told him it was a possibility he could lose his tongue.
But, his cancer did not spread to his tongue and he said he was fortunate to keep it.
Without prayer, wonderful doctors, his wife and family, he said, he did not think he would have survived.
Pam Nuckols, Dean’s wife, said 2007 was “a rough, rough year;” but, she said, “we survived.”
She said she and their daughter and his stepson are so happy that he (Dean) is “back to where he was” before the onslaught of cancer.
God, Dean said, set the road before him and told him to follow a lecture circuit and speak to people, especially young people, in churches and schools and other places to let them know just how he “had debilitated” his life.
Partly through his speaking, he said, he wants to change others’ lives in troubled situations like his was.
If only one person benefits from what he says, Dean said he will consider his mission a success.
Dean said he will not go back to television work; however, he said he might enter the radio broadcasting industry.
For now, he said he is happy, and is going to try auto sales at a large new and previously owned vehicle local dealership.
Dean wishes to thank all of his local viewers for their loyalty in tuning in all the years he has worked in the local television market and said he will miss coming into their homes each and every night.
For speaking engagements for Dean, contact his wife, Pam Nuckols, or his stepson, Sean Nathan, at AdMIX Agency at (252) 975-1691, or pamnuckols@suddenlink.net. Dean said he wants his speaking engagements to be large groups.