Former editor Rex Gibson dies, aged 89

Rex Gibson, the former editor of the SA newspaper, the Rand Daily Mail (RDM), has died at age 89, his family confirmed on Tuesday morning, TimesLive reported.

“Our beloved father died peacefully last night with all his daughters and his partner, Pat, by his side. What a grand life he lived,” his daughter, Kerry, wrote on Facebook.

Gibson was born on August 11, 1931 in Salisbury, South Africa to Arthur David and Mildred Joyce Gibson.

He married Lucille Shirley Carr on January 28, 1956 and had three children, Gail, Kerry and Robyn.

After retiring from journalism in 1992, he moved to Hermanus and published a memoir, which provided his perspective of the RDM spanning the late 1950s to the closure of the newspaper in 1985.

He was the recipient of the Joint International Editor of Year award of the Atlas World Review, 1979.

Career

• Rand Daily Mail, Johannesburg, 1952-1959,
• Imperial relations bursar, 1960-1962,
• Chief sub-editor, 1962-1967,
• Arts editor, 1969, assistant editor,
• Chief assistant editor, 1969-1972,
• Deputy editor, 1973-1976,
• Editor, since 1982,
• Founder editor Mining News, since 1967,
• Editor Northern Reporter, 1968-1969.

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