Fans of long running television game show Jeopardy! were saddened by the news on Sunday that Alex Trebek had lost his two year battle with pancreatic cancer.

Trebek who was in the studio still taping episodes of the popular program through October 29.  The shows producers announced that they will continue to air programs hosted by Alex Trebek through December 25.

For those of us who shout out the answers in the form a questions in front of our televisions nighly, Trebek is almost like a members of the family.  But for a number of local people who made it through the challenging process to be selected as a contestant, the loss of the legendary host is a little more personal.

In that elite list, Dr. John Mingey, Kathy Kraus Sahlmann, Sarah Flamini and Adam Holquist.

Holquist appeared on the program in 2013.  He won three episodes and then lost the fourth.  He told us he found the news "hugely sad," even though Trebek had been very open and public about his cancer battle.  "He had been back to producing new shows and seemed to be in good form and performing well, so I think it was a surprise to everybody that he had declined the way he had."

As to what it was like to meet Trebek?  "Unfortunately you don't get too much interaction with him on the show, they keep him pretty well sequestered from the contestants because he is involved in the writing process, he has seen all the material in advance so just to dispel any notions of impropriety, literally the first time you meet him is when he walks up to you for your little interview segment on the show, so you don't really get any opportunity to socialize with him, but you do get some time just to kind of see what he's like, and it was a great experience," Holquist said.

Trebek's replacement has not been named although there is a lot of speculation Holquist said, even record setting winner Ken Jennings now employed by the program, is among the names floated.  Holquist has been sharing this sad moment with an active Jeopardy alumni group online.