If there was a story on Inside Edition that made headlines, it had Bob Read’s fingerprints all over it. A beloved colleague and devoted family man, Bob was diagnosed with COVID-19 last month and tragically passed away over the weekend. He had just turned 60.

For 30 years, Bob has been a cherished member of the Inside Edition family. He headed up the show’s award-winning investigative unit, and was the managing editor for overall news coverage. For months prior to his passing, he’d been focusing on covering the pandemic, but the story hit home when he was diagnosed with the virus on Dec. 18.

Bob was much more than just a first-class journalist. He was a mentor and dear friend to so many of us at Inside Edition. For 36 years, he was with the love of his life, his wife Michele, and a proud father of his two children, Tyler and Casey.

Bob brought the tenacity he had in his reporting to his fight with the virus. But Saturday morning, that battle ended.

The Robert B. Read Memorial Fund has been set up in Bob’s honor. It will provide emergency financial assistance to families whose lives have been forever changed by COVID-19.

That is so Bob Read. He will be missed dearly by his family, colleagues and friends.