Health corrs mourn passing of Morgan

CURRENT and former health hacks will be saddened to hear of the death of Richard Morgan, former PR man in Glasgow at health board level and for the Yorkhill and Southern General Hospital Trusts, in the late 80s and into the mid 90s.

Richard, who died on Monday morning, came to Scotland with a journalistic and private sector PR background.

Says one former health correspondent, he helped alter the way media relations between hospitals, medics and staff were conducted, “in a quiet, effective manner”.

Says Mike Ritchie: “Richard Morgan was one of life’s good guys. He helped me a lot when I was the Daily Record’s health correspondent and I counted him as a mate, long after I moved away from newspapers and he retired.

“Amicable, approachable, always helpful as possible, he had a very good ‘nose’ for a story, either in general terms or for selective placing.

“He genuinely liked the press and all he asked was that you were straight with him. Yet, even on those occasions when newspapers had taken ‘flyers’, he managed to remain hugely unflappable.

“He liked his pipe and a pint and he was a good bloke with whom to spend a lunchtime hour or two in a pub of his choosing, talking shop, rugby, cricket, boxing and his new found love, Scotland.”