Longtime WYFF 4 anchor Geoff Hart is retiring after almost three decades on the WYFF 4 news team, the station announced May 20.
Hart went on medical leave in December 2020 and is now sharing details of his fight with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a WYFF 4 news report.
His WYFF 4 biography page mentions multiple Emmy awards, among others, and a long, successful run with the station.
But based on the word of a couple of Hart’s closest — and now former — colleagues, he is much, much more.
Veteran broadcast journalist Tim Waller — now media relations director for Greenville County Schools — worked with Hart for a quarter-century, from the time Waller joined the WYFF team in 1994 until 2019, when he left to pursue other opportunities in the community.
Waller said Hart not only is a detail-oriented professional who leads by example, but an authentic person.
“Geoff is an outstanding human being in every sense of the word. He is kind and humble,” Waller told The Journal. “A true gentleman. He makes everyone around him feel comfortable. No matter who they are or their position in life. And it extends to his family – they exude such a wonderful, positive vibe. He is not just beloved friend but a well respected member of this community. I will pray for this good man and his family.”
City of Greenville Communications and Community Relations Director Beth Brotherton co-anchored the WYFF 4 morning show with Hart.
She said theirs was a professional relationship based on the utter lack of pretense born of long hours spent working, quite literally, side-by-side.
“He’d show up at 3 a.m. with a giant bowl of grapes and I’d have hot rollers in my hair,” Brotherton remembered.
But it’s Hart’s friendship, Brotherton said, that helped her through some of the most painful times of her personal life.
“I never could have been able to come to work, put a smile on my face and get through a newscast if Geoff hadn’t been by my side,” she said. “His quiet strength and strong faith were a powerful force for me, personally and professionally. He loves his wife and family more than anyone I know.”
“You don’t get to do this life thing twice,” she said. “Geoff gives it his all.”
