Kevin and Karen Overbury

A former deputy editor at a regional daily who became a journalism lecturer has died at the age of 63 after a long illness.

Kevin Overbury was deputy editor of Newcastle’s The Journal from 1987 to 1992 and was a key member of the team who redesigned the paper when it moved from broadsheet to tabloid.

He spent time working for the local and national press before setting up a PR and marketing company and then becoming a lecturer at Sunderland University’s journalism school.

Kevin was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus in January 2010 and, despite an apparently successful operation, the cancer returned last year and he died at the weekend.

He started out in journalism as a reporter in his home town of Colchester before moving to work at the Yorkshire Post where he held the positions of sub-editor, copy-taster and designer.

At the Post, Kevin met fellow sub-editor Karen Simpson, who became his wife in 1982.

In 1985, he moved to the Sunday Telegraph, where he was chief sub of the colour magazine before becoming a freelance sub on a number of national newspapers, including The Times, Financial Times and the Daily Mail. He was also stone sub on Robert Maxwell’s ill-fated London Daily News.

Kevin then moved to The Journal as deputy editor and after leaving there, set up his PR company The Full Works, which he ran for more than 14 years.

After years of being a visiting lecturer at Sunderland University, he took up a full-time post and during his time there, he became co-ordinator of journalism programmes, ensuring all courses were accredited by the National Council for the Training of Journalists.

Kevin is survived by his wife Karen, who is a columnist for The Journal and editor of its Homemaker property section, and children Michelle, 27, and Philip, 23.