GRAHAM McKENZIE: GRAHAM McKENZIE'S first newspaper, the hand-written Weekly Squeak, was published while he was a pupil at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.
He later was delighted and greatly surprised to discover that his weekly contribution to the Newtownards Chronicle appeared without question - although not as surprised as editor Bob McNinch when he discovered his Ballygowan correspondent was a schoolboy.
When the young McKenzie walked into the Belfast Telegraph to ask if there was any work, he was made a part-time copytaker for the summer. When his stint came to an end he simply ignored the arrangement and continued to turn up for work.
Inevitably, he was summoned. Expecting to be dismissed, he sat shame-faced before news editor Freddie Gamble, who asked: "I don't suppose you would like to be the junior reporter at the Ballymena Telegraph?"
The words launched a long and distinguished career in journalism and stoked a life-long passion for the business of reporting. "I could have kissed his boots," McKenzie recalled.
In 1965 he applied for a job with the Manchester Evening News but when the interview went badly he phoned the offices of the Daily Express and was invited for a drink at the Crown and Kettle by Northern news editor Eddie Laxton. After an unknown number of pints, he was offered a job in the Dublin office.
As a Daily Express Ireland correspondent he specialised in off-beat and celebrity stories. He "rescued" Jayne Mansfield after her car broke down in Carlow and got away with exposing Sean Connery's bald spot. However, he did not escape the great actor's wrath after an Express photographer interrupted his backswing at Portmarnock Golf Club.
The ace reporter woke up to find he had missed the bombing of Nelson's pillar but interviewed leading figures of the era, from Seán Lemass and Éamon de Valera to rising stars such as Charlie Haughey.
The Express money was good and the expenses were better but he tired of the "paddy-whackery" that head office demanded from its Irish team - this included finding seven Paddy Reillys in Ballyjamesduff - so he returned to Belfast to work as a freelance.
He found a natural home as BBC Northern Ireland's business editor, for he came from a family of entrepreneurs. In retirement he launched the Copyboys, a website for retired journalists, and sponsored an annual prize for trainee reporters at Belfast Metropolitan College. He took a keen interest in the progress of the award winners.
He is survived by wife Mildred and sister Marianne.
Graham McKenzie: born January 5th, 1940; died March 19th, 2012