Yet another familiar face in Philadelphia’s broadcast news landscape is preparing to retire.

On Wednesday, May 26, 6ABC’s Action News reporter Dann Cuellar announced that he is retiring after 34 years. 

“I am deeply honored to have worked with some incredible colleagues at 6abc WPVI-TV. But now, after 34 plus years at Action News, the time has come to move on,” Cuellar wrote in a Facebook post. 

A mainstay since joining the station in 1988, Cuellar has built a solid reputation, reporting on a variety of local and major news events. This includes the 1993 and 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, the Waco Siege in 1993, the Oklahoma City bombing on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995, and countless others. 

Cuellar has traveled the world throughout his career, reporting on U.S. troops in Bosnia, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. He’s also covered major conflicts, including the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the American Intervention in Haiti, conflicts in Iraq, and others.

He’s also reported on happier local events, such as the Phillies’ 2008 World Series win, the Eagles’ Super Bowl win in 2018, or the annual preview of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. 

While his departure from Action News marks the end of a chapter, it also marks the beginning of another.

Cuellar is planning to spend the next few months with his family, loved ones and those “who enabled my career to happen,” he wrote. 

Ultimately, Cuellar would like for his next chapter to be teaching TV and digital journalism at a local university. In addition, he’d like to do some charity work in local communities, traveling, some consulting work, and maybe publish a book. 

“But right now I want to say, thank you for watching over the decades and giving me the opportunity to spend some time together and share so many events of our times. It’s been an honor and a pleasure. May we have left the world a better place than we found it,” he wrote.

Cuellar’s retirement announcement adds to a growing list of longtime Philadelphia reporters who have made similar announcements, such as 6ABC’s Action News anchor Jim Gardner — who will retire at the end of the year, after scaling back his schedule in January 2022 — and NBC10’s veteran meteorologist Glenn “Hurricane” Schwartz — whose final day is today, May 28.