TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - A longtime member of Florida’s Capitol press corps, who is a household name in Tallahassee, passed away this week.

Bill Cotterell died Monday at the age of 82.

Cotterell is in the Florida Newspaper Hall of Fame.

He reported at the Florida Capitol for more than 40 years - 27 of them with the Tallahassee Democrat.

“Bill was a reporter’s reporter. He was the ultimate straight arrow. Hard news reporter. A credit to the craft. That’s what I’ll remember,” the paper’s former Capitol Bureau Chief Dave Bruns said.

Bruns hired Cotterell and spent years working elbow to elbow with him on the second floor of the Florida Press Center.

“He covered presidential campaigns down to garbage pick up and everything in between and he always played it absolutely straight,” Bruns

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