John Babb's funeral on August 8

FINAL tributes will be paid to veteran journalist and former Newsday editor John Babb at his funeral at St John Evangelist RC Church, Diego Martin on August 8 at 11 am.

Babb, 91, died in hospital on August 3.

Babb joined Newsday in 1993, when Therese Mills was editor-in-chief, and helped build the newspaper until he retired on March 4, 2016, after 70 years in journalism. He and Mills had been close friends since their days at the Port of Spain Gazette in the 1950s.

In an interview in 2018, Babb recalled the efforts made by Mills, himself and a small group of people who worked tirelessly in 1993 to launch Newsday.

"It was a wall we were going against. Almost everybody in the market said, 'The market too small. You can't have three newspapers.'"

Former crime editor Nalinee Seelal and former chief photographer Rattan Jadoo were among those to join Newsday in its early days and help the paper firmly establish its place in the print media market against the Trinidad Guardian and the Express. Jadoo and Seelal died in October 2022 and January 2023 respectively.

Many of the people who worked under him and Mills at Newsday regarded Babb as the paper's founding father.

He offered a wealth of experience to those who worked with him and had wide respect among colleagues in the local and regional media fraternity.

Babb's long history went back to the days when Dr Eric Williams was prime minister. He was one of the few journalists who had easy access to Williams for stories.

During his career, Babb was proficient at shorthand, which helped his verbatim coverage of several stories. One of them was the 1996 trial of drug kingpin Dole Chadee and members of his gang for the murder of four members of the Baboolal family of Williamsville in 1994.

On the regional front, Babb distinguished himself as one of the few local journalists who were on the ground in Grenada in October 1983, to cover the US military invasion after prime minister Maurice Bishop was assassinated in a bloody coup by radical elements of his People's Revolutionary Government.

In September 2012, Babb and Mills each received a national award, the Humming Bird Medal (Gold), for their contribution to journalism.

On that occasion, Babb reflected on some of the principles he learned from his seniors as an aspiring journalist. These included being quick, accurate, on time, going down into the trenches and getting the hard news.

On August 3, Newsday editor-in-chief Camille Moreno described Babb as a well-loved mentor and father figure to a generation of journalists.

“He was renowned for his coverage of local and global politics, and court reporting, where his shorthand skills made him a legend. His insightful commentaries on our music festivals shone a the spotlight on many musicians and helped the event to gain prominence on our cultural calendar. He was a fearless, funny and inspiring person to have known."