I can't let the week pass without adding to the warm tributes to great journalist and teacher, Jon Smith.
Jon has retired from his post as lecturer at Darlington College, where he has guided many journalists in the ways of their craft.
I first encountered Jon when I joined The Northern Echo in 1984. He was then the scary chief sub-editor and the brains behind the always-popular Echo Quest treasure hunts.
A stickler for standards, he once came up behind me and whispered, menacingly, in my ear: "The next time you start a story with the words 'Mystery last night surrounded' will be the last story you ever write for this paper, my son."
I've never started a story with those words since that day.
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