JACK STOKES: Dies at 73 following retirement after decades-long career. PHOTO COURTESY OF TWITTER

NEW YORK (AP) – Jack Stokes, a veteran journalist with The Associated Press who was the news cooperative’s steadfast supporter and served as its spokesman during the last years of his decades-long career before his retirement, has died. He was 73.

Stokes, an avid cyclist and athlete, died unexpectedly after collapsing at his home in Queens on Sunday evening, said his longtime partner, Lorene Bradshaw.

He was remembered fondly by former colleagues as a calm, funny and charming presence everywhere from shifts working overnight in his early days to the company’s basketball league that ran for a few years toward the end of his time at the AP.