The funeral of one of Muswellbrook’s most influential and respected men will be held today.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Bernard McClintock, 89, former editor of the Muswellbrook Chronicle and Hunter Valley News, died peacefully on Sunday at Nelson Bay.
He lived in Muswellbrook for 85 years and worked with the newspapers for more than four decades.
The veteran newspaper man and world war two veteran had a full and generous life, earning admiration and many friends across the Upper Hunter.
He joined the air force after leaving school, and in WWII Mr McClintock served in the 75th bomber squadron, coming under air attack 15 times.
After the war, Mr McClintock came to work with his father Robert Emanuel McClintock at the Chronicle.
RE McClintock with his brother-in-law Thomas Whitton, had bought the newspaper in 1921.
Bernard McClintock learned the newspaper business from production to editorial.
In 1948 the Chronicle was eight pages, cost tuppence and came out on Tuesdays and Friday afternoons. Local sport stories shared page one with world news.
He became editor of the Hunter Valley News in 1975, after the purchase of that newspaper and when RE McClintock died in 1979, his son became editor of the Chronicle.
He retired from the newspapers in 1988.
Mr McClintock and his wife, Colleen, left their Flanders Avenue home and moved to Salamander Bay in 2008.
The page one story in the Chronicle was headlined “Legend leaves”.
“What I enjoyed most about working at the Chronicle was learning from my father the ways of conducting a country newspaper and the wonderful characters who lived in the town and district,” Mr McClintock told journalist Dayarne Smith at the time.
He was an iconic figure in the two newspapers’ histories, Mrs Smith said this week.
“It was always lovely to speak to Mr McClintock,” Mrs Smith said.
“As a young journalist it was always so interesting to hear his recollections about his years at the newspapers, as well as his insights about the modern products.
“He always liked to tell me what he thought of the current edition,” she said.
“His many years as a newspaper man are a significant and lasting contribution to Muswellbrook’s recorded history.”
Another former editor of the newspapers, Bernie Budden, was saddened to hear on the weekend of the death of his colleague of thirty years.
“He was a very likeable man,” Mr Budden said.
“Always friendly towards his staff and to others he came in contact with.
“He was well known and liked throughout the community.”
The staff of the Muswellbrook Chronicle and
Hunter Valley News extend our sympathies to the family of Bernard McClintock, particularly his wife Colleen, sons Jerome and Robert and his grandchildren.
Mr McClintock will be farewelled with a mass at St James Catholic Church in Brook Street, Muswellbrook at 1pm today. In lieu of flowers the family have requested donations to Legacy.
