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Dick Stark, a businessman and radio announcer who was the beloved voice of Whatcom County sports for six decades, died Tuesday, July 19, in Bellingham.

He was 88, and the cause was brain and lung cancer, said his longtime friend and colleague Keith Shipman, who is president and CEO of the Washington State Association of Broadcasters.

“He’s a guy who had such a profound impact on the county over the years,” Shipman told The Bellingham Herald.

A lifelong Bellingham resident, Stark graduated from Bellingham High and Western Washington State College, which eventually became Western Washington University, according to biographical information provided by Shipman, and from a March 2021 tribute produced by Puget Sound Media.

Stark was an advertising sales executive and account manager for KPUG-AM, where he worked his entire career, from 1962 until 2018. 

In addition, he ran a TV and video store in the 1980s and 90s, founded the Mavericks youth basketball league, and was instrumental in bringing the Boys and Girls Clubs to Bellingham, Shipman said.

But it was his radio broadcasts for Whatcom County high schools and for �������� football and basketball on KPUG-AM and KGMI-AM that brought him acclaim.