Fred Nutter, former news director at WCSH-TV in Portland, was remembered Sunday evening by colleagues who worked for him at the station as an “old school” newsman who always knew how to get the story.

Nutter died Friday at the age of 82.

Nutter started his career in radio in 1962 after serving in the Navy. He came to WCSH radio in 1965 but quickly switched to the TV station, Channel 6. He rose from reporter and anchorman to become news director in 1970 and then editorial director in 1986. He retired in the early 2000s, gradually transitioning from full time to filling in part time.

“He loved going after the news. He loved to pin people down and hold them accountable,” said Don Carrigan, now among the station’s most veteran reporters.

Carrigan first met Nutter in 1973 when Carrigan was a rookie reporter at WCSH-TV’s jointly owned station in Bangor, WLBZ-TV. He later worked with Nutter directly when Carrigan began a magazine-style show at the Portland station in 1978.

“I was probably a little intimidated because of who he was,” Carrigan said of first meeting Nutter. “He was serious about the news.”

But Carrigan quickly realized that Nutter was also friendly, outgoing and encouraging to the younger generation.

Carrigan said that even as news and editorial director, Nutter was still at his roots a beat reporter who knew his sources.

“He knew who to talk to, what button to push,” Carrigan said. “He knew the street.”

WCSH-TV anchorman Pat Callaghan hosted a broadcast Saturday evening commemorating Nutter’s life and career.

“I’m one of many people who owe a great debt to Fred Nutter,” Callaghan said at the start of the broadcast.

Callaghan elaborated by phone Sunday evening, describing his first encounter with Nutter in 1979 when applying for a reporting job in Portland.

Nutter liked Callaghan’s work but told him he needed to get more experience before working at the flagship station in Portland. He offered Callaghan an entry-level position at the Bangor station, not what Callaghan wanted to hear, but exactly what he needed.

“I thought he was very positive and very encouraging to me,” Callaghan said.

Callaghan first learned of Nutter’s death Friday evening from a co-worker. He did not know details about how or where Nutter died.

“It brings back a lot of memories, a lot of good ones,” Callaghan said. “You think how lucky you were to have a boss who became a friend. He had a great spirit about him.”

In Saturday’s broadcast, Callaghan included clips of an interview he conducted with Nutter in 2003 for a documentary about the news station.

“When I finally did get a job here, to me it was like a fantasy come true,” Nutter said in the interview.

Bill Green, a longtime reporter for WCSH-TV, got his start as a sportscaster at WLBZ-TV in 1975. But he came down to Portland in 1981 to work under Nutter as Channel 6 expanded its news coverage to try to overtake WGME-TV as the top station in the market.

“I think of Fred as kind of the guy who was at the helm when we started to expand our news coverage,” Green said by phone Sunday. “He was a very organized leader.”

Green wrote about Nutter’s death in a Facebook post Saturday, describing him as an “old school” guy from the generation before him.

“He got into news after coming out of the service and worked his way up. I picture Fred in a trench coat with a cigarette going as he talked with a cop or a diner waitress. He kept his hand on the pulse of the community and knew everything that was going on,” Green wrote in the post.

Green, now 62, said he became reflective after hearing of Nutter’s death.

“I was just thinking about generations, passing it along, kind of what Fred would have taught me,” Green said.

Nutter’s funeral arrangements are being handled by Jones-Rich-Hutchins Funeral Home in Portland.