For 23 years, Pat Boland pursued facts.
Covering Centre County sports and news for local radio, he pressed coaches and officials with follow-up questions. He sifted through sheaves of police reports and summary citations for buried nuggets. As an on-air personality, he came to work prepared from devouring current issues.
Boland fought lung and brain cancer with the same determination, working while undergoing chemotherapy and other treatments, never conceding defeat.
“You start living one day at a time, one week at a time,” he said this spring. “You set goals for yourself.”
His steadfast battle since 2009 ended early last Tuesday morning at his parents’ Central City home in Somerset County. He was 42.
At his death, Boland worked for Forever Broadcasting as program director for Newsradio 1390 AM and 103.1 FM WRSC as well as the news director for all of the company’s State College stations. He also co-hosted the popular talk show, “Kevin and Pat in the Morning,” with Kevin Nelson.
Until the end of May, when his condition worsened, Boland stayed on the job. After he retired to his parents’ care, he still told friends and wrote on his blog that he would return to State College this fall to report on Penn State football.
Instead, he left behind a reputation for thorough reporting, droll humor, graciousness toward younger reporters, encyclopedic knowledge of baseball and Penn State football — and an indomitable spirit during his illness.
“He really faced it with great courage and set an example for all of us,” Cohagan said.
A Penn State graduate, Boland started his career in 1988 with WMAJ, then a State College AM station.
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