“He wrote about stuff that touched people. He was able to make people laugh a lot and make people cry sometimes,” Batz Jr. said. “There was something about his writing that did that.”

The stories Batz pursued allowed him to experience the lofty and low – from piloting a Goodyear blimp, or spending a night in jail. After the death of his mother, Batz wrote a series of on Alzheimer’s disease that was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Based on the work he wrote “Long Goodbyes,” a play twice performed by the Brookville Community Theatre.

Batz also passed the craft forward, teaching journalism for more than 24 years as an adjunct professor at the University of Dayton.

“He really was a newspaperman’s newspaperman,” said Batz Jr., who followed his father’s footsteps and is now an editor and writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

“When I was a kid, I saw how much fun he was having and how good he was at it,” said Batz Jr.

Funeral arrangements are pending.