Goodbye to great journalist (From Witney Gazette)

Goodbye to great journalist

2:13pm Thursday 6th July 2006 in Witney By The Page Turner

THE family, friends, and former colleagues of former Witney Gazette, The Oxford Times, and the Oxford Mail editor Jim McClure gathered in Wallingford for his funeral.

Mr McClure, who lived in Wallingford, died last month aged 66 from respiratory failure following a long period of illness.

He moved to Britain from South Africa in 1965. His long and varied career included photography, reporting, and crime writing.

Mr McClure's coffin was brought in a horse-drawn hearse to St Mary's Church for the service. which celebrated his colourful life.

Mourners, led by wife Lorly, and three children, James, Alistair, and Kirsty, packed the church to hear tributes to the man described by fellow writer Olov Svedelid as a 'timeless genius'.

Alistair began by telling the congregation that his father 'never did anything half-heartedly', and recalled how he had been determined to finish constructing a garden trellis for Lorly the day before he was admitted to hospital for the final time.

"Most important was his ability to say sorry. Too many people see climbing down as a weakness. In Jim, it was a strength, and we loved him for it."

Peter Unsworth

Peter Unsworth, former assistant editor of our sister paper, the Oxford Mail, said Mr McClure's 'obsession for accuracy and demand for high standards' ensured that respect for The Oxford Times was maintained when he became the paper's editor in 1994, and that he would take a reporter's story and 'tweak it here and there to turn the piece into a masterpiece'.

Mr Unsworth added: "Most important was his ability to say sorry. Too many people see climbing down as a weakness. In Jim, it was a strength, and we loved him for it."

Fellow crime writer Duncan Campbell, who first met Jim in South Africa in the early 1960s, when they were teachers, said Mr McClure was 'a wonderful teacher, who gained the trust of the boys'.

He added: "He was a terrific storyteller, both on the page and in person. Equally important, he was a wonderful listener, whether you were a lonely boy in an art class, a young journalist starting out on a career, or a motorcycle cop in San Diego.

"He was a keen observer of the world around him, and that made him a great photographer and cartoonist. As a journalist, Jim always embodied the motto: 'comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable'. Both were equally important.

"Honesty, wit, and compassion were the three particular characteristics that always struck me about Jim."

Hymns included Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise, and Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, while Mr McClure's South Africa roots were reflected by The Lord's Prayer, from the African Sanctus.

A musical epilogue from Shakespeare's The Tempest, written by Mr McClure's daughter Kirsty, was played at the end of the service, which was followed by burial at Wallingford cemetery.