Stephen Kovach, 50, Plain Dealer Sports Copy Editor for the Last 13 Years

Stephen Kovach maintained his cool and good humor in the midst of frantic fellow staffers, burning the midnight oil to get late-breaking sports news onto The Plain Dealer’s sports pages for the last 13 years.

The sports copy editor, who died of a massive heart attack May 16 at age 50, made sure articles were accurate, grammatically correct and enhanced by photos and graphics, according to colleagues.

“He was cool in the hottest kitchens of deadline, calm when those around him were freaking out and always deft with his editing and layouts,” former co-worker John Campanelli wrote on Kovach’s online guest book. “He made others around him better, and it was an honor to work alongside him.

"Steve probably preferred not to make a ripple - with a quiet style, his diligent work ethic and even a years-long streak of packed lunches - but he couldn’t suppress his excellence. That stuck out.”

Plain Dealer sports columnist Bill Livingston also praised Kovach on the guest book:

“Steve handled my copy and improved it, caught my errors and removed them, took my gabbled corrections over the phone on deadline and made them quickly and professionally. He was a very good copy editor and was respected by all the writers who dealt with him.”

Kovach, a resident of Avon, was born in Warren, where he graduated from Howland High School.

He graduated from Ohio University and began his journalism career at the Coshocton Tribune in the 1980s.

Kovach edited copy at what is now the Morning Journal in Lorain and Crain Communications’ Plastics News in Akron before joining the Plain Dealer as a copy editor on the sports copy desk in 1998.

“Steve was one of my good hires for the sports copy desk,” Rosemary Kovacs, former Plain Dealer copy editing chief, wrote in the guest book. “He was a quiet guy who had great talents for editing. We joked about our last names being so similar.”

Kovach is survived by his wife, Sheryl (nee Hake); children, Andrew and Katherine; father, William; and brothers, William, Ronald and Gregory. His mother, Genevieve, is deceased.

“I am certain that the kind, strong, steady man we saw on the clock was the father and husband he was at home,” Campanelli wrote.

Funeral Mass was celebrated at with arrangements by of Avon.

Donations may be made to the American Heart Association, 3505 Embassy Parkway #100, Akron, OH 44333-8403.