Rex Gibson, the last editor of popular South African newspaper, ‘The Rand Daily Mail,’ has died, based on his family members’ report on Tuesday.
Rex Gibson’s daughter, Kerry, wrote on Facebook:
Our beloved father died peacefully last night with all his daughters and his partner, Pat, by his side. What a grand life he lived.
The veteran author and journalist, Rex Gibson, was born in August 1931. He is survived by three children: Gail, Kerry, and Robyn. The memorial details will follow for Rex Gibson.
Rex Gibson moved to Hermanus after retiring from journalism in 1992. During this period, he published a memoir. The memoir gave about his perspective of the RDM which spanned the late 1950s to 1985 when the newspaper was closed.
The Financial Mail reported in 2010 that Rex Gibson was at the coal face of the most atrocious censorship laws during the apartheid period.
The article in the Financial Mail stated:
He remains one of the few editors to have been charged under the infamous Official Secrets Act, and also defended himself and his paper against the much rarer charge of criminal defamation.
Rex Gibson was also the deputy editor of The Star and editor of the Sunday Express.
Rex Gibson was indeed a prominent figure that will always be remembered in the literary scene in South Africa.
