Dave Solomon, 59, died Saturday, Aug. 6, 2011, in a single-car accident on Interstate 91 in Middletown while returning from an assignment covering the first day of football practice at the University of Connecticut. Dave started covering sports as a student journalist at the University of Connecticut where he became sports editor of the Daily Campus. He joined the staff of the Hartford Times on Nov. 24, 1973, graduated from the University of Connecticut in 1974, and then moved to the New Haven Register when the Times closed in October 1976. Dave's career at the Register spanned 35 years, during which he covered everything from schoolboy sports to the pros. He had an encyclopedic memory of the games played and the people who played in them. From Yankee Stadium to the fields at Yale, from Madison Square Garden to local high school gyms, Dave interviewed and wrote stories about the greats, the near greats and the wannabe-greats. He was the eyes and ears of every sports fan who wanted to be in the locker room after the big game. The game stories he wrote were vivid, and chiseled from the hyperbole that often comes along with victory or loss. If Dave wrote it, there was no doubt that things happened just that way. Readers got the unvarnished truth from Dave, often to the dismay of any player or coach with an inflated ego and the bluster to match. Dave simply wrote what he knew and was unafraid to walk back into the locker room the next day to face those of whom he had been critical. There was no backup or retreat in Dave. But most of the time Dave wrote about the human side of sports. It was the athletes' journey he was interested in. Dave understood that the game was only part of the story and he could be the most compassionate of writers when something touched his heart. A challenge could make Dave as competitive as the people and sports he covered. It didn't matter if it was backyard ping pong or a casual game of golf, Dave played hard and fair, much the way he handled life. Later in his newspaper career at the Register, Dave was promoted to columnist. While he sometimes still covered games and wrote accounts of the exploits on the field, the column gave flight to Dave's full knowledge of sports and the people who play them for fun and profit. Reporters are bound to keep their feelings out of their stories, but columnists have no such restriction. His "I Was Thinking" column allowed him to share his thoughts with readers every Sunday. What he wrote each week was an amalgam of what he had seen and heard along the way. At his core, Dave was a sports fan just like his readers. What he wrote often resonated with readers because they were thinking the very same thing. Most of the time, readers loved him; sometimes they hated him. And there were those times that they did both simultaneously. Either way, his columns were eagerly awaited. During Dave's career, he was honored many times by his colleagues in the sports writing profession and by organizations he covered. His writing was honored many times by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the Associated Press and also received the Bill Keish Award for media service to Walter Camp Football Foundation. He was also a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America and the Pro Football Writers of America. Every award was humbly accepted and appreciated, but the one that he enjoyed the most was the casual comment in the newsroom telling him he had written a truly great story or had broken news no one else had. Dave loved newspapers and being first. But nothing was more important than being right. While readers saw the words that Dave wrote, they didn't see the hours, and sometimes days, that it took Dave to nail down the story. Endless telephone calls and emails were the price Dave paid to produce the stories that readers could trust. He was meticulous, tenacious and resourceful in tracking down facts and had little time for those who didn't have the same work ethic. Over the course of 35 years, Dave was a tutor and mentor to many who sought to travel the same path. Despite the demands and long hours of the newspaper business he loved, Dave's greatest accomplishment was marrying the woman he loved, his college sweetheart Judy, with whom he had two daughters, Lisa and Abby. Dave's face would light up and break into a smile when he talked about them. No matter where he was, he knew that when the roar of the crowd faded away and his deadline was met, he would follow the road home to his true loves, who didn't care what the score was or whether he had misspelled a word. To them, he was a husband and a father and an everyday hero. He will be sadly missed by his wife, Judith Solomon nee Koncki, Meriden, his Mother, Rae Solomon nee Goldberg, Delray Beach, FL, daughters, Lisa Krull (and Jason) of Alexandria, VA and Abby Solomon of Sacramento, CA, a brother, Kenneth Solomon (and Vicki) of Lake Worth, FL, sisters and brothers-in-law, Pamela and Raymond Demeis of Milford, PA, Barbara and Philip Hummelt of Alexandria, VA, Daniel Koncki of Meriden, his Mother and Father-in-law, Joseph and Lois Koncki of Meriden, nieces, Caryn (and Andrew) Claar of Fishkill, NY, Marci Solomon of New York, NY and Katherine and Elizabeth Hummelt of Alexandria, VA, and a great niece and nephew, Madison and Cooper Claar of Fishkill, NY. He was preceded in death by his Father Gerald Solomon. A funeral service will be held on Wednesday, August 10th at 10:30 AM at the B.C. Bailey Funeral Home, 273 South Elm St., Wallingford. Burial will follow at the Beth Israel Cemetery in Wallingford. The family will receive friends at their home on both Wednesday and Thursday from 6:00 - 8:00PM. In lieu of flowers, donations in David's memory may be made to the New Haven Register Fresh Air Fund, c/o New Haven Register, 40 Sargent Dr., New Haven, CT 06511 Attention: Jack Kramer, or the Beth Israel Synagogue, 22 N. Orchard St., Wallingford, CT 06492. To leave a message of remembrance or find directions, please visit www.BCBailey.com.