FORMER Newsday sports editor George Harvey was remembered by his children, Rawle and Marcia, for his humour and free-spirited ways.
The 89-year-old Harvey, who died at his home at Diamond Vale, Diego Martin on Friday, was laid to rest at Lapeyrouse Cemetery, Port of Spain on Thursday morning, after a funeral at the neighbouring Tranquillity Methodist Church.
The son of Donald Harvey and Doris John, George McDonald Harvey was born in Port of Spain on October 14, 1931 and attended Goddard Commercial School in Port of Spain.
Rawle, who delivered the eulogy, said, “His early work career saw him at the Insect Vector Division, but his true love was journalism. His first job at this field saw him as a cub reporter for the Port of Spain Gazette. He later moved on to the Trinidad Guardian in the late 1950s, where he had the privilege of attending journalism courses in Germany, in 1970, and Sweden, in 1972. George’s journalism career at the Guardian also took him to Washington, DC, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Jamaica.”
Harvey won two BWIA news media awards, for most outstanding sports article (1985) and outstanding journalism (1990).
“But these accomplishments do not begin to describe the man,” said Rawle. “He was an excellent father and husband, as he was a cool-tempered gentleman. I never saw him enraged or extremely angry.
“The one occasion I saw him genuinely vex was in 1990, as Daddy was in Parliament, that fateful July 27. He had run out of the (Red House) for his life. Later on, I remembered him telling me, with some anger in his voice, that his pants (were) torn up in his attempt to get out of Parliament.
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"Apparently, he was more concerned about his pants.”
Rawle touched on the light-hearted side of his father.
“Humour was a hallmark of Daddy,” he said. “I can give so many examples. He went out to a course in 1970, just before the insurrection (Black Power Revolution) of April of that year. Apparently, he told people that the insurrectionists waited until he left the country to engage in their activities.
“He also grew up with two Miss Universe winners. In his early years at Oxford Street, he used to ride the young Janelle Penny Commissiong to school on his bicycle. When he got married in 1964, he moved to Diamond Vale, where Wendy Fitzwilliam later grew up. He used to boast that beauty queens kept following him.
“But, to me, the following episode defined the wit of the man. A young journalist stated that after he wrote his first article, he asked Daddy where he should put it. Apparently, Daddy casually pointed to the dustbin.”
Describing his father as “a gentle soul,” Rawle gave an insight into life at the Harvey household.
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“My mother (Yvonne) was the designated enforcer of discipline,” he said. “On one occasion, while I was a little boy, she decided to offer this task to Daddy, and I was so glad that she
