A former local press editor and journalism lecturer who taught would-be journalists at two colleges has died aged 82.

Frank Warner taught on courses run at Harlow College, in Essex, but was best known for his work educating future journalists at Highbury College, Portsmouth.

Throughout his career, Frank also acted as an examiner with the National Council for the Training of Journalists and taught short journalism courses for the accreditation body in Epping and Rugby.

He retired from teaching at Highbury College in the early 1990s and an award was named in his honour which was given annually for special achievement by one of its newspaper journalism students.

Prior to starting his journalism career as a sports reporter, Frank dabbled with boxing and fought four professional bouts.

He went on to become editor of the Llanelli Star and in later life supplied copy about motoring to regional and national newspapers, travelling around Europe to test the latest models.

Bill Wood, a former NCTJ-senior examiner and journalism trainer on its accredited course at Darlington College and the Daily Mirror editorial training scheme, paid tribute.

“Frank was an excellent trainer who believed in high standards of journalism,” he said.

“He was a very good teacher and throughout his career he drew on his wide journalism experience.

“He was a very down-to-earth character, very energetic and was very well liked by the students.

“His lasting legacy is the hundreds of journalists he trained to a very high standard.”

Frank died at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth.

Comments

Oldhackandproud (17/03/2010 09:15:50)
I was at Highbury when Frank arrived midway through my pre-entry year, when things were pretty shambolic. When I left five months later, the turnaround had got under way and I figured that I was there a year early. Having gone on to send my own trainees to Highbury, I was glad to see that I was right. Frank was a proper journalist training others to be the same, and I suspect his way would not meet with the approval of the current NCTJ.
I’m sure there are a lot of his alumni who feel the same. RIP.