Charlotte Observer reporter Rick Bonnell found dead in his home this morning

[Captain Morgan]

covered mainly Hornets and NBA but did some Panthers and NFL as well.  63 years old

 

Jonathan M Alexander

 

@jonmalexander

·

14m

 

An extremely sad day at the Observer for me and my colleagues. Rick Bonnell was a beautiful person, who went out of his way to help me out. For that, I’ll forever be grateful and will miss him.

Edited June 2, 2021 by Captain Morgan

[Mr. Scot]

Saw that. They just recently lost a longtime photographer too.

[LinvilleGorge]

[LinvilleGorge]

I can distinctly remember a time when I thought 63 was old as dirt. Hell, 30 was old as dirt. I'm still decades away from 63, but it sure doesn't seem all that old anymore.

[rayzor]

3 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I can distinctly remember a time when I thought 63 was old as dirt. Hell, 30 was old as dirt. I'm still decades away from 63, but it sure doesn't seem all that old anymore.

Yeah, I remember being 20 and talking to my dad when he was 45 and thought that was ancient. I'm 51 now. I'm less than 15 years away from getting medicare and drawing SS. Insanity.

[Mr. Scot]

My mom passed at 61. My brother barely made it past his 62nd birthday.

I'm 54 and have had major health issues before, so yeah...

[panther4life]

Man this one stings. By all accounts a very good guy and very passionate about his Hornets/NBA coverage. Literally been reading his work for as long as I can remember and feel like I was just reading one of his tweets just a couple days ago. 

RIP Rick. You were a great one!

[Louie]

This sucks! I always enjoyed reading his column and hearing his opinions on things. He will be missed!

[thefuzz]

RIP.

[LinvilleGorge]

27 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

My mom passed at 61. My brother barely made it past his 62nd birthday.

I'm 54 and have had major health issues before, so yeah...

Don't worry. You're too hard headed to die. You'll argue the grim reaper into submission.

[bLACKpANTHER]

wow.. I have interacted with him on Twitter concerning the Hornets quite a bit..

very sad to hear and thoughts are with the family..

[SizzleBuzz]

Oh no...damn.

RIP fella. 

[LinvilleGorge]

1 hour ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I can distinctly remember a time when I thought 63 was old as dirt. Hell, 30 was old as dirt. I'm still decades away from 63, but it sure doesn't seem all that old anymore.

I can remember sitting in world history class as a senior in HS as our teacher talked about the Mayan calendar and jokingly told us the end of the world was coming in 2012. 2012? Pffff... I'll be 30. Who cares? Is life even worth living past that anyway?

LOL!

[ladypanther]

1 hour ago, Mr. Scot said:

Saw that. They just recently lost a longtime photographer too.

He was also found dead in his home when he did not report to work. Covered a lot of sports. Tough times at the Observer, and especially for those 2 families.

 

 

Some devastating background: Beloved Charlotte Observer photographer David T. Foster III was found dead in his home at age 52 on May 24.

Eight days later, we found out Rick Bonnell had also passed away.

Edited June 2, 2021 by ladypanther