My friend Richard Warry, who has died suddenly aged 59, was a BBC journalist who helped build its online news service from the start, particularly in reporting on health issues.
As an old-school print journalist with a background in the medical press, he was unlikely to have such a defining influence on digital news. But when he joined the BBC’s online news team in 1998, he brought all his traditional journalistic rigor to a new type of service that was then in its infancy.
The internet is now the dominant way to share news, but at the time it was far from obvious or inevitable that this would become so. Although there are many charlatans who advocate digital journalism, Richard belonged to the generation of journalists who actually made this happen.
He continued to work in digital news for many years, delivering the BBC’s online healthcare coverage and then co-ordinating online specialist journalism, always to the highest standards.
I started working with Richard at the BBC Television Center in 1998 as one of the first people to work online. Richard was a larger-than-life figure from the start, a complicated mix of passions, obsessions and contradictions.
He was born in Rustington, West Sussex, the son of Brian, a refrigeration company director, and Patricia (née Campbell), who worked in the printing works of a drilling company. After attending Littlehampton school, he studied biology and psychology at the University of Leicester, before completing a journalism course at the City, University of London.
His first job in journalism was as a reporter for the Croydon Advertiser, and he then moved into the medical press, working for Doctor and GP magazines before joining the BBC in 1998. Working in the health news team he became online health news editor and then assistant editor for online specialist journalism. At his death he was still with the BBC.
Richard was immensely popular with colleagues and was trusted by all, and behind an often formidably gruff exterior lurked the kindest of spirits, always ready to support anyone in need and unwilling to take any credit for themselves. No one worked harder; he might be called a workaholic, but he was never that relaxed.
Richard’s trademark humor, dry and often wryly pessimistic, was a sharp puncture of all that was pretentious and was accompanied by an underlying sense of decency.
Outside of work, he loved the music of Bob Dylan, supported Wolves Football Club and Sussex County Cricket Club, and read voraciously.
He is survived by his partner Oona Mashta, whom he met in the 1990s when they both worked for medical publications, and their children, Grace and William.