Donald Kaul, a longtime Register columnist known for his passionate and unapologetic writing, died Sunday morning. He was 83.

Kaul was a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, in 1987 for the Cedar Rapids Gazette and 1999 for the Register.

He also — and check this out, Don, three whole sentences in before this came up — was a founder of the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, which after humble beginnings began its 46th edition Sunday as the world's oldest, largest and longest recreational bicycle tour.

Kaul’s "Over the Coffee" columns in the Des Moines Register and other newspapers nationwide typically were drenched in satire. "His readers followed with a religious zeal that few modern journalists can hope to inspire," former Register columnist Kyle Munson wrote earlier this year in a piece looking back on Kaul's career and life in light of his prognosis.