Garcia was a pioneering Hispanic television journalist who won 14 Emmy awards and was dubbed "Earthman" for his environmental reporting.

He called the Coachella Valley home, residing in Palm Desert, with his wife Susie. For the past four years, Garcia produced and hosted a weekly television show, "Go West with David Garcia" on local cable channel, Time Warner Cable TV10, that aired several times a week and continues to air in reruns. He was also involved with public television and appeared on local television stations.

While David Garcia was highly respected locally, his reputation was known across California and the world. "He was a man of enormous energy and he had that great, booming voice," friend and former colleague Jess Marlow said. "He was great fun to work with."

Born in Temple, Texas, Garcia attended Baylor University and after college was hired by a radio station in his hometown. He moved on to the ABC television and radio affiliate in Dallas, to New York for the ABC radio network and then into ABC television.
At that time in the 1970s, Garcia was one of only a handful of Hispanics who were network television correspondents. He covered the White House, including the Watergate scandal and the administrations of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. He later was the network's bureau chief for Latin America, reporting on the Sandanista takeover in Nicaragua.

In the 1980s and 1990s, he worked for various Southern California television stations, including KCBS-TV, KNBC-TV and KTTV-TV, where he was a full-time environmental reporter. He got the nickname while working for KNBC-TV when weatherman introduced an upcoming environmental story by joking that "Earthman" was on the way.
"I ended up getting mail from kids, and it would have no address on it, just the word 'Earthman,' " Garcia said in a 2002 article in the Business Press/California.

"He carved out a niche before people really even paid attention to the environment," KNBC-TV anchor Colleen Williams said. "There will always only be one 'Earthman.' He started it for everyone, and he was really passionate about it."

During his career, Garcia was nominated for 30 Emmy awards and received 14.

Garcia is survived by his wife, Susie of Palm Desert; his mother, Evangeline Garcia; a brother, Ted; and his sisters, Rachel Kidd, Suzanna Garcia and Cindy Garcia, all of Temple, Texas.

In San Francisco, friends and colleagues paid tribute to ABC7 anchorman and radio talk show host, Pete Wilson, at a public memorial. Wilson died recently of a major heart attack during a hip replacement surgery at Stanford Hospital according to reports from KNTV San Francisco. Funeral services were private.

· Jeff Wald, longtime News Director and 22 year employee at KTLA-TV Channel 5, Los Angeles decided to step down from the top job this summer to spend more time with his family. Wald's wife died on a family vacation in Mexico last year and he has been raising his 15-year old daughter alone. Wald was a former APTRA board member.

· Craig Hume resigned as News Director at KUSI-TV, San Diego. Last year Hume replaced Steve Cohen as News Director at the station.

· Steve Cohen has returned to previous position and is now the News Director for KUSI-TV, San Diego, an independent McKinnon owned station.

· More news at KUSI-TV, San Diego, Kelly Ryan joined the news team as weekend evening news anchor. Ryan was most recently anchor and reporter at KGO, San Francisco.

· KOLO-TV in Reno, Nevada has a new news anchor. Brent Boynton has taken the position after stepping down as Nevada Governor, Jim Gibbons' Director of Communications. Boynton is no stranger to the news desk. He worked in news for 28 years before joining Gibbons' office in 2006 when Gibbons was in Congress.