Warren Kulo, a veteran journalist who covered Mobile, Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, and regional news for AL.com, died Sunday night. He was 60.

Kulo’s wife, Dawn Kulo, said that he had died peacefully in his sleep after an enjoyable day out with friends on Sunday.

“It’s always a sad day when we lose a valued colleague,” said Hollis R. Towns, VP of Content for Alabama Media Group. “As the new editor, I met Warren for the first time just recently. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends. Warren was a seasoned journalist who took incredible pride in his work.”

Kulo, who was based in Ocean Springs, had been a reporter for The Mississippi Press and GulfLive.com since October 2012 and joined AL.com’s Mobile staff in March 2023.

His 40-year career included extensive coverage of news and sports in coastal Mississippi, working for a variety of outlets including the Columbus (Miss.) Commercial Dispatch, the Starkville Daily News and the Ocean Springs Record, where he had served as sports editor, managing editor and editor.

Dawn Kulo said her husband had many interests outside of journalism.

He was a big sports fan, following the New Orleans Saints among others. Having spent some formative years of his youth in Los Angeles when his father worked in the region, he was a lifelong devotee of the Dodgers and Disneyland, she said.

The two of them had made many visits to Florida to Walt Disney World and Universal Studios theme parks.

“This year when I got the schedule for the Dodgers, the opening weekend was against the Cardinals,” she said. The Cardinals had been her team before they married and he converted her to the Dodgers faith, she said.

“So I said, ‘Okay, this is it. We’re gonna go’ … and we went out for opening weekend in Dodger Stadium and we, we basically, we did everything he wanted to do. It was kind of his dream and lifetime trip. So I’m just so glad we got to do that.”

He was such a fan of the Disney parks that he could while away idle moments just watching YouTube videos of people walking through them, she said.

“That was a big thing and, of course, his kids were his absolute pride and joy,” she said.

Dawn Kulo said her husband had enjoyed his favorite meal on Sunday, crawfish, and the two of them had gone out with friends.

“We saw everybody,” she said.

“He came home, he was fine when he went to bed, there was no indication of anything was wrong and he literally just went to sleep. There was no indication that he tried to get up, he wasn’t on the floor, he was still in the bed laying on his side like he would always fall asleep and you know, he didn’t call out. So I truly think he went to sleep and he never felt anything. He just went to sleep and that was it.”

Kulo earned honors during his career, notably including a 2015 recognition by the American Psychiatric Association.

Kulo had extensively covered a dispute over whether a mental health clinic would be permitted to open despite opposition in Ocean Springs. His work for the Mississippi Press earned the APA’s national Warren Williams Award.

Kulo was honored “because of his tremendous service to the mentally ill and the psychiatric profession by shedding light on such prejudice and discrimination,” the APA said. The organization described his reporting as “fair, dedicated, courageous and thorough.”

He was preceded in death by his parents, Thomas and Thelma Kulo.

He is survived by his wife, Dawn Kulo of D’Iberville; his longtime partner in parenting, Angela Price Kulo; three children and four stepchildren — two sons, Wyatt Kulo of Ocean Springs and Cody Kulo of Starkville; a daughter, Sydney Kulo of Birmingham; a stepdaughter, Dixie Cripps of D’Iberville; three stepsons, Nathaniel Cripps of Flushing, Mich., Patrick Cripps of Biloxi, and Robert Cripps of Athens, Ga.; five half siblings, Melissa Mace of Spencer, W. Va., Jodi Hepler of Macedonia, Ohio, Holly Dotson of Boonville, Ind., Tony Stubbly of Eastchurch Kent, Isle of Sheppey, England, and Harry Knopp of Ripley, West Va.; and three beloved four-legged dependents, Bailey, Trinket and Miss Kitty.

A memorial service will be held Monday, June 17, at 7 p.m. at Bradford-O’Keefe Funeral Home on Porter Avenue in Ocean Springs.

Visitation will precede the service from 5 to 7 p.m. at the funeral home.