ALAN Calvert had a unique journalistic career and was known to thousands in his role as a columnist and as deputy news editor at the Bolton Evening News.

As reported in yesterday’s edition of The Bolton News, he has died at the age of 72 and tributes are already pouring in for the man who epitomised local journalism.

Alan, who lived in Harwood, worked at the paper for 38 years.

He started his career in his home town of Blackpool, working first for the Lytham St Anne’s Express and then for the Blackpool Gazette.

When he moved to Bolton at just 21, he embarked on a love affair with the town that spanned over 50 years. In his professional career he worked as a news reporter, crime reporter, deputy news editor, deputy features editor, business editor and editor of the Looking Back page.

Alan was a guardian of the highest standards of journalism, employing the traditional skills of listening to people and writing accurately and sympathetically. He was a meticulous news reporter and expected the same of others. Woe betide any reporter who came back from a story to tell the newsdesk there was “nothing in it.” His response was to send them back until they found the story.

Alan could turn his hand to anything, and did, writing about everything from pop music to crime, although he had a self-admitted reputation for being on day off or on holiday when major crime stories broke. However, he covered the town hall fire in 1981 and the aftermath of the first Gulf War. He always wrote descriptively and compellingly and had a popular column for many years. If anyone called him “old-fashioned”, Alan relished the description because he associated it with the best of journalism.

Alan was a long-time supporter of the National Union of Journalists, a former official and an honorary life member. He was also a keen crown green bowler for Longsight bowling club, played table tennis for MeadowBEN and was a member of the Brewhouse Ramblers quiz team. He was a caring family man. He is survived by his wife Margaret, sons Philip and Francis, daughters-in-law, Lynne and Cath and grandchildren Lucy and Emma. Margaret said: “He was a wonderful husband and we were a team.”

Alan never lost his sense of fun. Asked once what he would put on his epitaph, he stated without hesitation “Born To Be Mild.”

Ian Savage, editor in chief of The Bolton News, said: “I have known Alan for all of my professional life and he was instrumental in supporting me throughout it. His love of Bolton and this newspaper shone through and he will be sadly missed.”