Parkinson was encyclopedia of info

THE media fraternity will say their final goodbye to veteran journalist Simon Parkinson whose funeral will he held today at the St Andrew's Anglican Church in Scarborough at 11am. Parkinson’s career as a journalist began when he joined the Radio Tambrin 92.7 family, widening his audience and making him a household name as he held the position of news manager in the station’s early days.

Newsday Tobago understands Parkinson was hospitalised for one week prior to his death on Tuesday after suffering with the flu which subsequently became an infection.

While he was of British descent, Parkinson made Tobago his home for over three decades. He was the son of renowned former photographer of Queen Elizabeth II, deceased Norman Parkinson, who resided in Tobago since 1963. Parkinson’s close friend, Radio Tambrin’s Managing Director, George Leacock described him as not only an encyclopedia, dictionary and the go-to person for archive information, setting the tone for news in Radio Tambrin in the early days of the station. He was the newsreader for the 6.15am, 7am and 8am newscasts.

“Simon Parkinson was an extremely dedicated and extremely loyal individual to Radio Tambrin. He had an immense talent as a writer, and his understanding of news and his absolute dedication to standards… Simon would never put out a story that he hadn’t gone through to ensure that it was actually true and accurate – he had the facts. Yes, he wanted to make his deadlines but he had to make sure that it was done accurately. He was always on time and also a stickler for pronunciation even in his written work.

“He was also a poet. If you had ever heard any of his advertisements for Friday fish on the port… he had a tremendous sense of humour and so that kept everybody at the station on a kind of balance,” Leacock said.

The station’s Traffic Manager, Latoya Thomas shared fond memories of Parkinson who gave her the sobriquet, ‘Tiny’.

“After 14 years, he never called me by my name. I was dubbed 'Tiny' by him from day one. We shared a computer in the early days and I quarrelled with him every day that second-hand smoke kills, to which he replied 'nonsense Tiny, nonsense'. He would inspect my make-up and outfits every morning to make sure everything matched as he had exquisite taste. He hated to see me with fake eyelashes and would ask about the kids more than he would ask about me. In the absence of (Derek) Osmond who we lost a year ago, he now took the place of the person who would call me at 5.30am if I forgot to print the log."

She also spoke of Parkinson's unique style of dress and his love of music.

“A guy who loves blue and his Levi jeans; you may think it was ragged but he wore nothing less than brand name clothes and shoes. He loved his cat, coffee, Carib, his smokes, West Indies and the Mighty Shadow. When we can’t find him, we know to go directly to Brown Betty or Ciao Cafe. A guy with whom intelligence has no bounds. At Radio Tambrin we are always each others keeper and this is a great loss,” she said.

Former sportscaster at the station, Marcus Daniel noted that Parkinson played a very integral role in his life, noting that he taught him everything he knows in media.

“We shared a good friendship, owing to his love for West Indies cricket. If you want to see him vex, just miss a story or trouble his coffee. Simon was an excellent writer. He went about his job without a care in the world but was very professional, always on time, always grateful for a good story. As any good editor, Simon always wanted to verify every bit of information through several sources before putting it in the news, there was never a rush to report it first as he always wanted to get the complete story before airing it. A true journalist and a true gentleman, he’ll be missed,” Daniel said.

And ex-news presenter, Tameka Harry lauded Parkinson as “a man that knew his craft."

She said he was "very meticulous with his work. Didn't let anyone bully his staff.....once you are sure about the story, he stood by you 100 per cent. Never micro-manage! I learnt a lot from him.”