GREEN BAY, Wis. -- My first year on the Green Bay Packers' beat, in 1997, I asked Lee Remmel for help with a statistic I was trying to dig up.

The stat would not reflect favorably on the team.

With a straight face and in his baritone voice, the longtime public relations director said: "We don't keep track of those things around here."

Remmel, who died Thursday at age 90, loved the Packers.

He loved covering them during his days at the Green Bay Press-Gazette, a full 29-and-half-year career by itself. He covered his first Packers' game in 1945.

And he was as loyal a company man as there was, joining the team's public relations department in 1974. He worked in that capacity until became the team's official historian in 2004.

He forged special relationships with players from all eras but surely had his favorites. Among them was quarterback Brett Favre.

Remmel spoke like the old-time sportswriter wrote, with eloquence. He loved names, often calling people by their first, middle and last. At press conferences, he would announce Favre's arrival by saying "Brett Lorenzo Favre."

"He was the best," Favre said Thursday in a text message shortly after learning of Remmel's death. "I will cherish my times with Lee, [and former Packers' public relations staffers] Jeff Blumb and Schief [Mark Schiefelbein] during Lee's tenure. I will tell Leland J. Remmel stories as long as I'm able."

Remmel's importance to the Packers and the community was recognized on multiple occasions -- in 1996, when he was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame; and in 2003, when the press box at Lambeau Field was named in his honor.

"The Packers lost a cherished family member today,” Packers president Mark Murphy said in a statement. "Lee was a key member of the organization for many years and his knowledge of Packers history was unparalleled. He was a great ambassador and through his public relations work, he helped multiple generations of Packers fans learn more about the team. We extend our sincerest condolences to his family."