Farewell, Frank Devine

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Filed under: Journalism, Media, Newspapers, Writers

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Australia lost one of its finest writers today with the death of journalist Frank Devine, age 77.

Frank Devine playing snooker at the Tokyo Foreign Correspondents' Club in the 1960s

Frank’s columns brought joy to thousands of readers. He wrote with grace, wit, humour and charm; he was politically conservative but he never thundered or railed, and was a master of dry self-deprecation - in one recent column, filed when he was aged well into his seventies, he joked that his affection for John Howard “bordered on the homo-erotic.”

He was a terrifically kind and giving man who despite having soared as a journalist - he edited The Australian, The Chicago Sun-Times and The New York Post - remained affable and approachable, and a mentor to the young.

The Australian publishes a terrific celebration of his life here by former Liberal MP and Quadrant editor Peter Coleman.

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427Australia, you have nothing to fear but fear itself

375There's no one Thomson won't burn to save his skin

313Thomson didn't answer the question everyone is asking

304Animal experiments won't cure me from cancer

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246A big day for Thomson, who thus far is guilty of nothing...

231Craig Thomson speaks. Meanwhile, in Australia...

231South Australia. It's the middle bottom bit.

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- Rainer the cabbie says:
  
  05:08am | 04/07/09
  
  RIP Frank Devine
  I had the pleasure of his company in my Taxi one day and found him to be a perfect gentleman and extremely good company. His writing was witty and the language he used was as precise as a bullet. One could be sad about the “old school” of journalism he represented loosing another founding member, but then his input is still very much alive today. My condolences to his family.
  
  Reply
- Thomas (Wayne) Devine says:
  
  07:26am | 08/07/09
  
  Because of my lowly family status as the youngest of Frank’s New Zealand siblings, and because he went overseas while still a youth, I never got to spend much person to person time with him until we were both middle-aged. Even then he fondly treated me as a kid, which I guess I still seemed to him to be after my more sheltered life.
  
  I loved him as a big brother, and every entertaining and stimulating minute we spent together. He was a great journalist with a big personality.
  
  I should be at his funeral today, but I am at present too sick to travel to Australia, so I’m reading his on-line obits and, in spirit, being with his Sydney family instead. Thank you, Rainier, the cabbie, for remembering Frank too and, on behalf of my sisters, Valerie & Barbara, and myself, thank you for your condolences . They help to fill the gap in my life that Frank has left behind.
  
  Reply

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