Even at the end, Larry Zerkel lived one day at a time.

Zerkel, who worked in the newsrooms of KHON, KITV and KIKU during the 1970s and 1980s, died Friday at Castle Medical Center. He was 71.

During his time in Hawai'i, Zerkel was also the director of disaster relief at the American Red Cross, Hawai'i Chapter; chief fundraiser for the Valley House Community on Kaua'i; and was the executive director of Hawai'i Bound, a nonprofit wilderness adventure school on the Big Island.

He also is credited with helping raise money to get Hawai'i Public Radio started in the islands in 1978. He was the radio's first paid project director.

"Larry could always reach out and put a joyful twist on that meeting," said his wife, Cevza Zerkel. "He practiced being in the here and now. He looked at life as each one of us being a leaf on a tree. We are here. We grow. We're gone and then another leaf grows."

Zerkel was the news director of Channel 13 KIKU TV. In the early 1970s, he was co-anchor and an investigative reporter for KHON TV, and received a national award for his "Pollution Hawaii" feature.

Early in his career he worked for the Armed Forces Radio Network and reported on the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961.

Ray Lovell, state civil defense spokesman, said he and Zerkel worked together at KHON.

"I remember him being a good guy," Lovell said. "He was a good reporter, easygoing attitude. A lot of television people in those days were wound up pretty tight. He wasn't. He turned in good work and was a good writer."

In their later years, the Zerkels lived in K'a'awa, where Larry Zerkel learned to enjoy the Islands and relax with kayaking, an evening sunset and rainbows.

"I think he was a very free spirit," Cevza Zerkel said. "He made people at ease. He had that knack. He took pleasure in small things: Like flying kites, feeling the wind on his face in his kayak."

In addition to his wife, Zerkel is survived by sons, Eric, and Adam; brother, Gordon; and one granddaughter.

Services are pending.