Veteran journalist Owen Baptiste dies

Legendary journalist Owen Baptiste, former editor of the Express and editor in chief of the Trinidad Guardian, has died.
His widow Rhona Baptiste announced his death on social media on Wednesday morning.
His son Simon, describing his father as his hero, said Owen Baptiste died at West Shore Medical on Tuesday night of complications of diabetes.

Born in Tacarigua in 1933, Baptiste began his career at the Guardian in 1951. He became the founding editor of the Express in 1967, after working for the British-owned Trinidad Daily Mirror.

Journalists who worked in newsrooms under his leadership included later Express editors Keith Smith, David Renwick and Lennox Grant; Raoul Pantin, Rosemary Stone, Roy Boyke and Andy Johnson; Kathy Ann Waterman, Sheila Rampersad, Camini Marajh and Deborah John; current Express editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder and Newsday editor-in-chief Judy Raymond, along with countless others.

He wrote two groundbreaking columns, one under the pseudonym of Benedict Wight; the other, No Sacred Cows, appeared daily on the front page of the Express.

Baptiste was a former editor of the Catholic News and Caribbean Contact and former executive chairman of the Barbados-based Caribbean News Agency (CANA).

Through their company Inprint Caribbean, he and Rhona also published a local version of People Magazine, as well as books, many on on local current affairs.

After leaving journalism Baptiste lived in China for a number of years before returning to TT.

He and Rhona had two sons, Marc, who died earlier this year, and Simon, now the creative director of the International Soca Monarch contest.