Former KOMO television and radio news anchor Eric Slocum has died at 54.

Colleagues at KOMO recalled his sense of humor, his compassion and his ability to connect with an audience.

"He was just such a fun, bright spirit in the newsroom and during newscasts," KOMO consumer-problem-solver and anchor Connie Thompson said Wednesday.

"Eric was very serious about his profession, but he was equally serious about staying human in his profession. I think it really showed. He wasn't afraid to laugh at himself," Thompson said.

Thompson said an online outpouring of concern from viewers after news of Mr. Slocum's death showed how much he had touched his audience.

The King County Medical Examiner's Office ruled Mr. Slocum's death Saturday a suicide.

Born Daniel Slocum, the Lubbock, Texas, native took on the name Eric when he arrived at KOMO in 1991, when he was told by the news director that in order not to confuse viewers he couldn't use the same first name as his colleague Dan Lewis.

"I joked with him a lot over the years about me being the one who took his name away from him," said Lewis, a TV anchor.

Lewis called Mr. Slocum "a wonderful guy and a gentleman," and said his former colleague's laugh had reverberated in his mind. "Hearing it all day gives me some feelings that he's at peace," he said.

Mr. Slocum lived in South Seattle with a partner and their rescued pit bulls, KOMO reported.

When he was preparing to climb Mount Hood, Thompson said, she joined him for a training hike up Mount Si and ended up icing her knees for the following week.

Weathercaster and anchor Theron Zahn said Mr. Slocum "added light to the newsroom and joy to people's lives. He was just a gift."

Mr. Slocum mentored Zahn when Zahn came to KOMO as an intern.

"What I do today is the direct result of what he taught me, how he taught me television was not public speaking, it was one-to-one communication," Zahn said.

Zahn said Mr. Slocum was "very open, very willing to share any struggles he was having in his life and willing to listen if you wanted to tell him what was going on in your life. ... He didn't fake anything for TV, and he didn't fake anything off TV either."

Mr. Slocum wrote a book of poetry, "New Words," in 1996 to raise money for pediatric AIDS research at Seattle Children's hospital.

Known to his co-workers as Eric or Dan Eric, Mr. Slocum switched from TV anchor to radio anchor in 2002, and left the newsroom in 2008 to write a memoir.

He was still working on that book, "In Danger," when he died, KOMO News reported.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Bill Virgin wrote in 2008 that Mr. Slocum intended to discuss in the book his recovery from alcoholism, how he dealt with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and how he decided to come out as a gay man.

"Acceptance of myself was really a struggle," Mr. Slocum told Virgin.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com