The former RTE newscaster and newsroom journalist, Vere Wynne-Jones, has died at the age of 56.
Initially in the station's radio sports department, he moved to the newsroom where newsroom executive Leo Enright said of him that he applied himself to news with the same vigour he had brought to sports.
Joining RTE in 1978, he had been a teacher in a County Dublin school after graduating in history and political science at Trinity College, Dublin.
He learned typing and shorthand to get a start in the national broadcaster, becoming the station's first male secretary before joining the sports department.
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He was subsequently to become a founding member of RTE 2FM's sports department. He was a member of the RTE sports staff covering the Seoul Olympics in I988.
Leaving RTE in 1990 to work in public relations, he continued to contribute to the station's radio sports department.
In recent years he also presented sports and current affairs programmes with Dublin station Q102. As a consultant in media communications he advised clients that verbal fluency did not always translate into effective communication.
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Diagnosed in 2002 with cancer, he felt duty bound as a public figure to speak out about his ill-health, becoming something of a role model for cancer patients facing up to their illness. He believed that cancer charities, the media and those treating cancer, should talk up the success rate of cancer treatment and talk down mortality figures.
The son of a County Limerick Church of Ireland rector, Vere was a member of the Masonic order, being a master mason in the third level. In an RTE television programme appearance, Vere spoke openly about his involvement with the organisation and insisted that there was nothing underhand about the Masons' activities, adding that the Freemasons had helped him in his illness and had given him the opportunity to become involved in charitable work.
An RTE statement described Vere as having made a remarkable contribution to broadcasting and said he would be fondly remembered by everyone who worked with him. He is survived by his wife Jenny and children Stephen and Ruth.
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