Ken Gray, who died on May 20th aged 76, spent his entire working life with The Irish Times and associated publications, where he made a reputation for his skills in page design before moving on to administrative duties. Outside the newspaper world he was best known as a pioneering television critic whose weekly column was widely admired.
As an assistant editor (administration) and later as a director on the board of The Irish Times, he was closely associated with major changes in the production of the newspaper and its consequent expansion in the decade leading up to his retirement as deputy editor in 1991.
Ken Gray was born in Sandymount, Dublin, on October 16th, 1925. His father, George, had fought in the first World War in the Dardanelles, where he was wounded. He later qualified as a radiographer and worked in Leopardstown Hospital for ex-servicemen run by the British Ministry of Pensions. Ken Gray's mother was Gertrude McKee from Warrenpoint, Co Down.
As a boy growing up in Sandymount, Ken Gray became interested in horse riding and exercised horses on the local strand. He got a job as an extra in the film Henry V, which Laurence Olivier made in Powerscourt, and featured in the cavalry charge - an image which those who knew him in later life would find somewhat bizarre.
He was educated at St Matthew's Church of Ireland Primary School and St Andrew's College. After a brief foray into accountancy he joined the weekly illustrated tabloid, The Times Pictorial, which was published by The Irish Times.
He began on June 19th, 1944, as a trainee journalist on a salary of one guinea a week. His older brother, Tony, was already working on the weekly and was later to become its editor. Ken Gray was promoted in 1948 to assistant editor and it was there he acquired the page layout skills, matching pictures with text, which were to be developed in his next two assignments.
In 1950, he married Hazel Dagg, an Irish champion swimmer. In the same year he moved to the tabloid Sunday Review, also published by The Irish Times. He was assistant editor in charge of production.
When The Irish Times acquired the Evening Mail, Ken Gray was called in to oversee its change to tabloid format in 1960. He was both assistant to the managing editor, Alan Montgomery, and also chief sub-editor. He was also given responsibility for the move of the evening paper from Parliament Street to Westmoreland Street.
Following the demise of the evening paper, he returned to The Irish Times in 1962 and was appointed art editor with the job of re-organising the photographic department. Colleagues who worked with Ken Gray at this time recall how he used skills from his tabloid days to give the more staid broadsheet newspaper striking page layouts using large pictures.
They also recalled his gentlemanly management style and courtesy to his staff, but he could take determined stands when the occasion demanded. He also wrote occasional film and theatre reviews. Once when a hard-up colleague purloined one of his cheques for a review and cashed it in the Pearl Bar, Ken Gray magnanimously did not take the matter any further.
In 1963, he took on the extra duty of writing a weekly TV column. This was to continue until 1978 - a time-consuming occupation before the days of video recorders.
His column made Ken Gray a familiar name to thousands of readers who had no idea of his main duties on the newspaper. It was crisply written and was influential and widely admired at a time when Teilifís Éireann, as it was known in those days, was in its early development stage. He was involved during this period as a judge of the Jacobs Awards.
He gradually moved from the art department into administrative duties, drawing up budgets and production schedules. In 1972, he was appointed assistant editor (administration) and became responsible for labour relations in the editorial department, a sometimes demanding area.
In 1978, he was promoted to deputy editor and also joined the board of The Irish Times. He had been closely involved in planning the changeover from letter-press production to computerised photo-composition in 1979-'80. He retired as deputy editor in 1991 but continued to serve as a director until 1998.
In retirement he took up painting as a hobby and became proficient in watercolours.
He is survived by his wife Hazel; daughters, Linda (Roe) and Sue (Barry); son Alan; brother Tony; and sister Joan (Lanham).
Ken Gray: born 1925; died, May 2002