Remembering the high-flying exploits of traffic reporter Captain Dan

Perspective by John Kelly
Columnist
November 1, 2023 at 2:35 p.m. EDT



Dan “Captain Dan” Rosenson with the helicopter he flew as an airborne traffic reporter for WWDC radio. He died Oct. 19 at age 91. (Evening Star Collection/D.C. Public Library)

From his perch in the skies above Washington — hovering like a winged demigod — Dan Rosenson would occasionally fall into a philosophic mood.

“I think we’re all fighting for positions in life in one way or another,” Rosenson once told a reporter for the Washington Evening Star. “On a day-to-day basis we all compete with one another.”

To thousands of Washington-area commuters, Rosenson was “Captain Dan the Traffic Man.” The daily competition he saw while reporting for District radio stations was the automotive cut-and-thrust of getting to work in the morning and getting home in the afternoon.

Rosenson — a familiar voice on WWDC and then WMAL — died Oct. 19 in Ajijic, Mexico, at age 91. He and his wife, Donna, had lived in the scenic Mexican town since 2008.

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By John Kelly
John Kelly writes John Kelly's Washington, a daily look at Washington's less-famous side. Born in Washington, John started at The Post in 1989 as deputy editor in the Weekend section. Twitter https://twitter.com/JohnKelly