EVERETT — Many eateries throughout Snohomish County still show off framed copies of Scott Gorman’s restaurant reviews.
A reporter for The Herald in the mid-1990s, Gorman died June 20 at Skagit Valley Hospital in Mount Vernon from a heart attack related to diabetes and kidney failure. He was 54.
“You’ll walk into a restaurant, looking for a menu and any reviews they might have, and there’ll be a review by Scott Gorman,” Herald reporter Christina Harper said. “I figure if he liked it, I’ll like it. Seeing one of those old reviews always makes me smile.”
Harper, who worked in the newsroom with Gorman, said he cared deeply about his work as a journalist.
“He brought, for readers, a warmth to what he wrote,” Harper said. “He was a genuine person who was always interested in what was going on.”
Along with writing feature stories for the newspaper, Gorman did general assignment reporting, covering a variety of topics including breaking news and projects about life in Snohomish County.
“He really put his heart and soul into his work at the Everett Herald,” said his sister Lynn Caffrey of Oakland, Calif. “The Herald was probably the most professional job he ever had.”
Along with his sister, Gorman is survived by his brother Bruce of Berkeley, Calif.
Born in Washington, D.C., Gorman attended Emerson College in Boston, where he studied the arts and journalism. He lived briefly in the Bay Area of California before moving to Anacortes in 1982.
A couple months later he started an organization called Anacortes Youth Arts, and became a longtime volunteer for many arts organizations in Skagit County.
After working as a freelance reporter for the Skagit Valley Herald and the Anacortes American newspapers, he worked a brief stint as the editor of the weekly American before moving on to The Herald.
In 2000 he won a prestigious Fulbright research grant that provided a residency and study period in Kisakata, Japan, a Sister City of Anacortes. What he learned there was detailed in a series of columns for the American.
Gorman retired for health reasons in 2005. He’d been working as the cultural coordinator for the Anacortes School District.
A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. July 12 at the Depot Arts Center, 611 R Ave., Anacortes.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
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