VETERAN journalist and retired editor of the Guyana Chronicle, George Baird died at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) on Thursday morning, following triple post-surgery heart attacks in rapid succession. He was 76.

A father of six, Baird’s death sent shockwaves around the media fraternity. It came just 18 months after that of his wife, Shanta Baird, who passed away on December 18, 2016, also of a heart attack. He is survived by daughter, Sefa Maxwell and her five siblings and other relatives.

Baird’s hospitalisation came in the aftermath of a motor vehicular accident in which he was involved some years ago. He has since suffered multiple seizures, leading up to his final period of hospitalisation.

Baird had enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the field of journalism, during which scores of media practitioners benefitted from his vast wealth of knowledge, experience and tutelage. He had a reputation for being a ‘stickler for discipline’, and one whom reporters could not easily get past.

A graduate of Queen’s College, after graduating, Baird immediately entered the field of journalism, working first at the Guyana Graphic and later the Guyana Public Communication Agency (GPCA), before joining the staff of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited (GNNL) on October 1, 1971 as a senior reporter.
He was later recommended for specialised training and proceeded to the United Kingdom where he underwent a 10-week Senior Journalists Training Programme sponsored by the Thomson Foundation for the Commonwealth from March to May 1988. On successful completion of the programme, he was elevated to the position of managing editor at the GNNL.

That was about the first of many such training programmes and scholarships granted him, since his outstanding work as a journalist soon caught the eyes of the then President Forbes Burnham, who thereafter took him on several overseas trips. He attended several conferences with President Burnham, said Mr. Oscar Clarke, who was at the time Minister of Home Affairs.
After rendering decades of yeoman service to the company, he retired honourably on April 1, 1992, and being an asset to the company was rehired on a contract basis. But years later, on account of ill health, having suffered seizures during his tenure, he opted to go into permanent retirement in 2014.

Oscar Clarke, with whom Baird had been friends for over 50 years, said it was with deep shock that he received the message. Clarke said he had visited him in hospital just the day before, and there was no indication that death was imminent.
Commenting on George Baird’s remarkable traits in his profession and his contribution towards mentoring and moulding young journalists, Clarke asserted: “Regardless of what people may say, what you can’t take away from him was his love for journalism.”

Meanwhile, Guyana Chronicle’s Editor, Godfrey Wray, devastated on learning of the death, commented: “George Baird was the consummate journalist, a man who was not prepared to settle for second best or shortcuts. His Queen’s College background made him demand nothing but the very best. Even after he retired, he could be called upon to point out errors. He is among the dwindling band of good newspapermen.”

Retired News Editor, now proofreader at the Guyana Chronicle, Wendella Davidson, sharing her sentiments stated: “What I know is that journalists who have passed through Mr. Baird’s hands can see themselves as well-rounded journalists in terms of his attributes, as being a stickler for discipline and excellence, punctuality, office decorum, mode of dress … you name it. And you dared not spell a person’s name incorrectly, or he’d haul you over the coals. While he was stringent with his editing, at the end of the day, you can say that you have emerged the better, since there are certain principles and values he would have instilled in you, you will be the better for it.”