26/03/2008

A former editor of the Aberdeen Evening Express, Bob Smith - who followed the classic path of copy boy to the top job - has died in hospital in Aberdeen, aged 84, after a long illness.

Bob, whose son, Graeme, is the Aberdeen-based staffman of The Herald, was one of Scotland’s longest-serving editors - at the helm of the Granite City’s evening newspaper from 1962 until he took early retirement in 1984.

A fiercely proud Aberdonian, he began his working life in the commercial department of Aberdeen Journals - becoming a copy boy then a messenger in the sub-editors' department. 

He subsequently moved to DC Thomson's People's Journal as a cub reporter, returning in 1946, after war service in the RAF. After a year, he moved to the Weekly Journal, and then switched back to Aberdeen Journals as a reporter with the Press and Journal and the Evening Express in the days when it was common to work on both papers in a rotational shift pattern

He quickly climbed up the editorial ladder, and in 1958, he was appointed assistant editor of the Evening Express, and editor four years later.

A keen hill-walker, in his retirement he became a prolific author, writing books on the history, traditions,  countryside, and environment of North-east Scotland. He also had a long association with the Braemar Highland Gathering, as press secretary.

The funeral service is  at Aberdeen Crematorium tomorrow at 1.35pm.

Says former colleague, Hamish Mackay: “Bob Smith was very much a hands-on editor - having risen through the ranks as a hard-bitten reporter, and subsequently a subbing and production man. He was a truly multi-skilled, multi-tasking journalist.

“Physically, a large and handsome man, always impeccably dressed, he could be a demanding and sometimes detached, aloof man, but he had a great news sense and an incisive brain. If your copy wasn’t up to scratch, he could bear down on you with great ferocity. You couldn’t hide from, or flannel, Bob Smith about the intricacies of his trade.

“These were the days when the Evening Express produced five editions a day, with the City Late Final rolling off the presses around 4.30pm, carrying a bulging stop press on both the front page and sport.

“Bob had a great sense of public duty, and the paper ran many exciting and often provocative campaigns, but the emphasis was always on hard news and an extremely diverse sports coverage.

“Away from the office, he was splendidly engaging company, with a dry wit. He was a great conversationalist, and had an admirable total disrespect for the pompous and arrogant.

“He produced a crisp, caring and news-driven paper which was the match of its peers in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee, and many of his staff went on to prominent positions in the national newspaper industry.”

* Send your Scottish media news and gossip, in the strictest confidence, to  info@allmediascotland.com