Veteran AP, Plain Dealer reporter Mark Gillispie dies at 63

By JOHN SEEWER
Associated Press

Mark Gillispie, a veteran journalist who wrote about many of Ohio’s biggest stories during a four-decade career primarily with The Associated Press and The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, has died. He was 63. His children, Sam Gillispie and Martha Hanna Gillispie, say he died Sunday after being diagnosed with cancer last fall. Gillispie joined the AP in 2014 as a reporter in Cleveland. He covered stories including the police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice and a statehouse bribery investigation. He previously worked at The Plain Dealer for 24 years. There, he wrote investigative stories that included reporting on questionable overtime practices by Cleveland police.