Veteran journalist Balford Henry passes

THE local media fraternity has lost one of its calmest and most easy-going veterans, Balford George Henry, who died on Monday after a brief illness. Henry’s quiet and composed demeanour belied his sharp wit, keen sense of discernment, hard work, and professional integrity that have been the hallmark of his more than four decades as a top print reporter. Henry served both national newspapers, The Gleaner and the Jamaica Observer, in several capacities.

He also served as consulting editor at the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) and worked at New York Daily News, WLIB Radio in New York as a correspondent. Henry was also editor of Reggae Times in the 1990s and reporter for the Overseas Gleaner (North America Edition) in New York during the 90s. In a 2011 interview with JIS the unflappable Henry said he simply loves to write, and responded to the call to the fourth Estate during the summer of 1971, while a sixth former at Wolmer’s Boys’ School in Kingston.

“At that time, The Gleaner advertised for trainee journalists. I was among scores of young people from across Jamaica who sat the initiative tests, coincidently held at Wolmer’s Boys’ School auditorium. Fortunately, I was among the handful of successful candidates,” he recalled.

At that time, The Gleaner was the only institutionalised daily newspaper in the country and, in the absence of a school of journalism in Jamaica and indeed, the wider region, the North Street facility prided itself as the nursery and training ground for print reporters. “I was exposed to the veterans of the craft, people like Ken Allen, Calvin Bowen, LK Southerland, and Editor-in-Chief Theodore Sealy. Barbara Gloudon, in particular, discovered very early in my career that I enjoyed writing features, and encouraged and nurtured my efforts,” said Henry in the JIS interview.

He recalled that the training period was tough, with the late Fitzroy Nation “being the only other member of my group to survive that ordeal”. Henry further honed his skills as a Commonwealth Press Union (CPU) Fellow, London, 1977; earned a journalism diploma as a Thomson Foundation scholar in Cardiff, Wales, 1977; and was one of 12 journalists from around the world chosen by the World Press Institute (WPI) for a fellowship at Macalester College, St Paul, Minnesota, in 1983. Early in his career Henry reported on sittings of the then Kingston and St Andrew …