Obituary - John Speck, a free spirit who exuded flair

John Speck, known to many in Reuters as Chief UK Economics Correspondent during the 1990s, has died too young at the age of 60.

John is mourned by his loving wife and family, and also by friends and former colleagues, despite having left Reuters more than 20 years ago.

Graduate trainees and other young hires at Reuters were accustomed to being surrounded by dauntingly clever journalists. John was certainly that, but he was also something else -- a free spirit in the newsroom who exuded flair.

Fledgling colleagues schooled in the Reuters way of doing things were taught by John how to bend but not break those rules and, most of all, how to have fun under pressure. That was a priceless lesson.

He had an inexhaustible supply of strategies and ruses to be first with the news. When John appeared at a press conference or briefing, hearts in opposition news agencies sank.

John left Reuters after battling acute RSI, brought on by a relentless round of reporting economic data and policymaking, which meant that he could no longer use a keyboard. 

Since then, he had devoted his time to managing a considerable rental portfolio and to property development, which included a stunning house in Carcassonne, just a stone's throw from one of Europe's largest castles.

A lover of football and surfing, John spent many happy hours teaching his three sons the finer arts of a curved free kick or riding a rolling wave on the beaches of his beloved Cornwall and western France.

He relished those pursuits throughout a life well lived.

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