Donald Perry, the head of public relations for Chick-fil-A, has died of a heart attack in the midst of the national controversy surrounding the chain’s stance of gay marriage.

WRBL News 3 (“Chick-fil-A’s Vice President of Corporate Public Relations passes away“):

News 3 has learned that Donald A. Perry, the Vice President of Corporate Public Relations has passed away.

Ross Cathy, the owner of the Midland, GA Chick-fil-A and family member of company CEO, Dan Cathy, tells News 3, Perry passed away this morning from a heart attack.

Chick-fil-A Inc. relased the following statement:

We are saddened to report the news to you that our dear friend Don Perry, vice president of public relations, passed away suddenly this morning.

Don was a member of our Chick-fil-A family for nearly 29 years.  For many of you in the media, he was the spokesperson for Chick-fil-A.  He was a well-respected and well-liked media executive in the Atlanta and University of Georgia communities, and we will all miss him.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

Sad news. None of the news reports I’ve scoured mentions Perry’s age; one presumes he’s at least in his early 50’s given his tenure at the company and still relatively young judging from the photographs. Whatever one’s views of his company’s stance on gay marriage—for the record, I disagree with them—his death isn’t a political matter but rather a tragedy for his family and friends.