Veteran journalist Tony Gee lost a long battle with cancer on Anzac Day, passing away at his home near Mangonui with his wife Eve and son Adam at his bedside. He was 67.
Mr Gee, who was diagnosed with cancer early last year, a few months after returning home from a 104-day world cruise, was a long-time reporter at the Auckland Star and Truth in the 1960s and '70s. He became chief reporter and news editor of the Star in the 1980s, then moved to the Far North, initially to Peria, in 1987, working as the council roundsman for the Northland Age from 1992-97 and as a Far North correspondent for the Herald. Until recently he also contributed a weekly column to the Northern Advocate.
His other roles in the Far North included a stint as journalist tutor at Te Puni Kokiri in Kaitaia, before he joined the Northland Age, and pulling pints at the Mangonui Hotel.
Friend and fellow journalist Bruce Morris said Mr Gee was one of Auckland's great journalistic characters from the 1960s to the '80s.
"He was a great mixer, a bloke who loved a beer and a party, and his family. He was an old-school journo with a vast range of contacts who was no great stylist but who was always fair, accurate and balanced, and widely trusted to get things right," he said.
Anthony Raymond Lidbetter Gee was born in Gisborne on March 8, the son of a secondary school teacher of English, and was educated in Rotorua. He was head boy at Rotorua Boys' High in 1963, landing a cadetship at the Star in 1965 after finding university didn't suit him, no doubt having gained some insight into the trade from his uncle, Keith McCook, then a senior reporter at the Herald, who later became chief reporter, editorial manager and general manager of Wilson and Horton.
He worked in the Press Gallery for a year then returned to Auckland as the paper's racing reporter, then went to Truth from 1969-75.
After travelling to Norfolk Island then Hong Kong, where he worked in radio, he joined the Auckland Star in 1978, and after a long stint as the industrial relations reporter (and president of the Auckland Journalists' Association) was promoted to chief reporter then news editor.
After a spell in radio in Hong Kong he returned to the Star as industrial relations reporter. He headed the Auckland trade union for journalists, and eventually took charge of the newsroom as well.
He is survived by Eve, whom he met in 1973, travelled the world with and married in 1979, son Adam, daughter-in-law Sarah, three grandsons, and a sister, Frances, in Christchurch.
A memorial service will begin at 1pm tomorrow at 62 Puketiti Drive, Mangonui, the family asking that donations be made to Far North Hospice in lieu of flowers.