Randy Whitehouse, a longtime member of the sports staff at the Sun Journal in Lewiston, died on Sunday. He was 51.
Colleagues said Whitehouse had been battling serious undisclosed health issues since January and appeared to be making significant progress, but suffered a setback last week.
“Randy wasn’t just our coworker, he was our friend. It’s an understatement to say this is a devastating blow,” Sun Journal Sports Editor Lee Horton posted on his Twitter account.
“Nobody covered Maine sports like Randy. His combination of intellect, writing skill and the ability to capture the personality and humanity of his subjects was unmatched,” Horton said.
Whitehouse joined the Sun Journal in 1996 as a news reporter and made the transition to sports in 1999, becoming an award-winning journalist.
For more than 20 years, including a 23-month stint at the Kennebec Journal in Augusta from 2014-16, he wrote about the athletes, coaches and other key figures in central Maine sports.
“Randy Whitehouse was a friend, a colleague in our small Maine sports writing community, and a great guy,” sportswriter Travis Lacarczyk of the Central Maine Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal said on Twitter.
Whitehouse was described as a private and humble man who had a good sense of humor. That dynamic emerged in his “Huddle Up” columns for the Sun Journal.
“The Maine sports world has lost a great writer, advocate and supporter of athletics,” sportscaster Travis Lee of WMTW-TV said on Twitter.
Rep. Tim Roche, R-Wells, the longtime head football coach at Wells High School, said he always enjoyed talking to Whitehouse and reading his stories.
“Sad day for Maine athletics. He was a true promoter of our athletes and sports,” Roche said on Twitter.
Whitehouse is survived by his son Andy. He was predeceased in 2019 by his wife Joyce.