At home or at work, Caesar Alsop, who died June 5 due to complications from heart disease, was the definition of your go-to guy.

As a loving husband to his wife of 26 years, a proud and dependable father of a daughter and two sons and a devoted son to a mother in his hometown of Fredericksburg, Va., Alsop, 53, was there when his family needed him.

In a career that started as a sports writer at the Wilmington (Del.) News Journal and progressed at the Philadelphia Daily News to become one of the few African-American sports editors in the United States, colleagues knew Caesar well for his sense of humor and calming influence in pressure situations.

Caesar Alsop

From the day he joined the Daily News in 1983, Alsop was the editor who handled every bit of the layout and guided the staff through the night shift.

"Caesar was always so comforting," said Daily News sports writer Paul Hagen, who covered the Phillies beat for 16 years before becoming the national baseball writer in 2002. "You'd be on the West Coast, and the game would be tied in the ninth inning, and the deadline would be approaching and you would call and say, 'Caesar, what are we going to do?' And he would say, 'Don't worry about it, big boy. Just get it to me as quick as you can.' He was so unflappable."

It was that personality and professionalism that lifted Alsop to sports editor, where he worked with executive sports editor Pat McLoone.

"For all the years Caesar worked at night and I was sports editor I would check in nightly, normally from my bedroom," McLoone said. "I always asked Caesar if he needed anything. Finally, after about a year of listening to this, my wife, Tracey, was fed up. She'd say, 'Does he need anything? Does he need anything? When are you going to understand that Caesar has it under control and doesn't need anything?' "

Said Zack Stalberg, the editor of the Daily News: "He was a great man. Put aside the newspaper stuff and the sports stuff. He was just a great, great man."

That's the husband Althea Alsop will miss dearly.

"He was just a caring person," she said. "He always put other people ahead of himself."

Caesar Alsop is survived by his wife, Althea; daughter Brandy (26); and sons Caesar II (24) and Brandon (17). Burial was held June 12 in Stafford, Va.