Don McClellan, a WSB-TV reporter for more than half a century, died of Parkinson’s disease at his Smyrna home, his family confirmed to Channel 2 Action News on Sunday.
McClellan was 88.
McClellan, who was nicknamed “Don Mac” by those inside the WSB-TV building, joined the TV station in 1960 and continued to file reports with the station part time well into the 2010s. He was not self-aggrandizing and never had an official retirement party. He was inducted into the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2010.
“He was the center of what I call institutional knowledge about anything that happened in the city of Atlanta the past 50 years,” said Monica Pearson, evening anchor at WSB-TV from 1975 to 2012 and who nominated him for the GAB award. “Long before there was Google, there was Don McClellan. And he was one of the genuinely nicest people you’d ever meet."
