Longtime Seattle journalist, former FOX 13 reporter Steve Kiggins dies at 47

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Steve Kiggins (FOX 13 Seattle)

SEATTLE - Steve Kiggins, a former FOX 13 Seattle reporter and photojournalist whose broadcasting career spanned more than two decades, died at age 47 on Thursday.

Kiggins was a trusted journalist, broadcaster, multimedia storyteller and public servant who created content to inform, inspire and mirror our humanity.

He grew up in southwest Washington and spent many summer months along the Oregon coast in Seaside and Cannon Beach with his family.

Kiggins began his career in broadcast television at KBTC-TV, the PBS station in Tacoma, working in the master control room switching taped programming. Near the end of his studies at Bates Technical College, he earned a paid internship at KOMO-TV, assisting with production of the ABC affiliate’s newscasts.

A friend and fellow Bates student encouraged him to apply for a news photographer position at KTVN-TV in Reno, Nevada. The job marked the start of his professional path as a news photojournalist and laid the foundation for a career that would take him across the country.

Kiggins covered hurricanes and survived tornadoes while working in the Deep South. For nearly a decade, he reported throughout North Carolina and Georgia, meeting hundreds of people and covering communities across the region. His work behind the camera led to opportunities in front of it, and in 2010 he became an on-air reporter at WGCL-TV in Atlanta.

In the spring of 2013, Kiggins returned to the Pacific Northwest to join KCPQ-TV, then Q13 FOX, in Seattle. For nearly a decade at FOX 13, he reported on some of western Washington’s most significant events while continuing to work as a multimedia journalist (MMJ).

"I am thrilled to be working at FOX 13 News," Kiggins said in his FOX 13 biography. "Moving back to the amazing people and unrivaled beauty of the Pacific Northwest is a dream come true."

Kiggins grew up in Longview, and lived in south Puget Sound before beginning his broadcasting career in Reno. 

Throughout his career, Kiggins earned awards, recognitions and nominations. He often said the trust of his audience, colleagues and interview subjects mattered most.

Kiggins approached his work with humility, taking care in sensitive situations and striving to meet people where they were. He considered seeking out and reporting the truth a matter of public service.

Most recently, his journalism appeared on KBTC-TV’s public affairs program "Northwest Now."

Kiggins lived in Seattle with his dog.