David Nicholson

Dave was one of my oldest friends, going back some 50 years to student and journalistic days in Nova Scotia, where he started his distinguished career in journalism as a copy boy with Canada's national news agency, The Canadian Press (CP). Following university, we met up again in Toronto with CP, Dave writing and editing radio copy for the agency's Broadcast News division while I worked on the general news rewrite and filing desks. Another old hand from those days is David Betts.

Our ways parted for a few years after I ended up in London with Reuters. The first I knew he had signed on with the Baron was in a phone call to the New York desk from the island of Saipan in the central Pacific. I was in Saipan covering an independence referendum from U.S. post-war rule in 1975 and the only way to file was by phone to the U.S. Dave took the call in New York and greeted me with his usual exuberance. "That's the second exotic call in five minutes," he exclaimed and explained he had recently joined Reuters at the behest of George Short - one of George's best recruitments. Dave said the other unexpected call had been from the CIA. "They said their Reuters machine had broken down and could we rerun the stories they had missed." Dave, something of an anarchist at heart, was still bemused by the CIA call.

Dave's skills as a writer, sub and editor became legendary during his years at Reuters. Correspondents loved him for the respect with which he treated their copy, and he was one of the best editors one could have wished for: unflappable, humorous, meticulous, tireless and a fount of knowledge from his wide interests and reading. He was a great journalist.

His death came as a special shock because he had phoned me only two nights earlier - just to keep in touch. He had suffered from health problems for some time, but he always made light of them. That night he was his usual cheerful self and we both looked forward to hoisting a pint or three in Edinburgh, Glasgow or London. He was a great friend and colleague and our hearts go out to his wife Marilyn and their family. ■