Richard M. " Dick" Cottam, a former Spokane Police Department spokesman and television journalist, died Friday. He was 81.

Cottam served with the Marine Corps in Korea, where he was wounded and received the Purple Heart. He then attended the University of Missouri, earning a bachelor's degree in journalism. He taught there and worked at a local radio station, then took a job with NBC in Chicago and New York.

He left NBC and moved to Wichita, Kan., where he taught journalism at Wichita State University and worked at KAKE-TV.

He and his wife, JoyLyn, moved to Spokane, where Cottam worked as an assignment editor and newscast producer for KHQ-TV. Then he went to work for the city of Spokane as a spokesman for the Police Department.

He retired when police Chief Roger Bragdon retired in December 2005.

Cottam and his wife returned to Wichita. She and a daughter, Christine Susan Cottam, survive him. A memorial service will be held Tuesday morning at Cochran Mortuary in Wichita.

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