Allan J. Moll, 82, former Utah radio/television broadcaster and longtime attorney for Salt Lake County, died Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2004.
Mr. Moll did the first commercial TV news broadcast ever in Utah on KDYL in 1948. His radio and TV career spanned 36 years, and his legal career was 25 years long.
"Allan hardly ever used a script," said Joe Lee, a Utah broadcaster who worked with him at KDYL. "That was his one, big, strong suit."
Lee said he could take one look at a script or news copy and pretty much give it back verbatim. "He was very natural."
"Allan was very bright, very talented," said Bob Welti, a former TV weatherman who also worked at KDYL. "He was fun to work with."
Born in Minnesota, he moved to Salt Lake City at age 12 and began his broadcast career at KDYL radio in December 1941. Reporting on the attack on Pearl Harbor was one of his first assignments.
He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps and afterward finished his law degree at the University of Utah.
Mr. Moll had a private law practice, in addition to his TV work. He moved to Los Angeles in 1958 to be the news director for KHJ radio and TV. There he interviewed many VIPs, including Jimmy Stewart, President Harry S. Truman, Bob Hope and others.
It was also in California that he had a cameo role in the 1968 movie, "Wild in the Streets."
In 1968, he returned to Salt Lake City and again worked for Ch. 4 TV. He retired in 1976 to work full-time as a deputy Salt Lake County attorney and have a private law practice.
Regarding his TV retirement, he told former Deseret News TV editor Howard Pearson in 1976, "The business of working 14 to 16 hours a day was wearing thin. . . . I had to make a decision as to whether to become an old newsman and give up the law or follow the law full-time."
He spent two decades as Salt Lake County's chief spokesman at the state Legislature. His legal expertise also included being a federal defense attorney and counsel for the Salt Palace and Convention Bureau and for the health department.
Mr. Moll received the Outstanding Lawyer of the Year Award from the Utah State Justice Court Association and was given a similar honor from the BYU Political and Legislative Association.
Salt Lake County and the State Senate also honored him as the honorary "30th Senator" in Utah.
He unsuccessfully ran for Salt Lake County attorney in 1994 and retired from his legal career in 1996.
In 2001, he was inducted into the hall of fame by the Utah Radio and Television Association.
Memorial services will be today at 11 a.m., at Evans and Early Mortuary, 100 S. 574 East. Burial will be in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.