FAMILIES, close friends and former colleagues held a requim mass at St Joseph The Worker Parish in Samabula to farewell one of Fiji’s veteran journalists, Gabriel Singh, yesterday.
Singh, 54, died after an illness in Papua New Guinea. The newsman commonly referred to as Gabby or the “lawnmower” was surrounded for the last time by those who came to pay their final respects.
Gabby was highly respected for his critical eye for detail and one who was a true friend who opened this writer’s mind to the world of journalism.
His sister Christine Khan said in her eulogy her brother, a former student of Stella Maris Primary School and Marist Brothers High School, was a person who told it like it was.
Mrs Khan said Gabby had a short fuse but was a very protective brother to his sister and cousins in school, opting to take the stance that whatever happened in school must stay in school.
“I realised the only reason we could not get boyfriends in high school was because the Marist boys soon found out that we were related to Gabriel.
“Underneath, he had a heart of gold. He once chased the Vatuwaqa bus from Flagstaff to near Des Vouex Rd because I had forgotten my blue polka dot umbrella on the bus,” she said.
Former The Fiji Times sub-editor, co-colleague and friend Mark Garrett said Gabby began as a cadet reporter in 1979 shortly after him. The two came from different backgrounds and schools but they jelled.
“Gabby had gravitated fairly early to sports reporting combining a love for the sport with a concise writing style and becoming the finest sports journalist in his generation.
“In fact I would venture, with all respects for some other excellent writers, many of them friends of mine, that he was the finest sports reporter,” he said.
The Fiji Times editor-in-chief Fred Wesley said Gabby was an inspirational journalist and played a key role in moulding and developing many young reporters in the print media industry.
“His name will forever echo through the halls of the The Fiji Times and he will be remembered.
Gabby is survived by his brother Raphael and his wife and children; sister Christine and her husband and children.