FORMER Sports Editor of the Guyana Chronicle, Norman Brent Chapman, has died at the age of 74, following a prolonged illness.

Born on June 8, 1949, Brent Chapman, as he is popularly known, passed away last Monday, December 26 – Boxing Day, in New York.

He entered the field of journalism in 1975 as a general news reporter attached to the Guyana Graphic and stayed on when the Chronicle and Graphic merged.

He later joined the Guyana Broadcasting Service (GBS) where he rose to the position of Sports Producer.

In 1982, he returned to the Guyana Chronicle as Senior Sportswriter and later, Sports Editor.

The former Sportscaster at one time hosted a groundbreaking radio series featuring outstanding Guyanese sportspersons on Radio Demerara and was known for his forthrightness in his popular column ‘On The Ball’ in the Guyana Chronicle.

He covered several international sporting events at home and abroad, for radio and newspapers, notably the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the 1985 International Boxing Federation (IBF) world title fight in Atlantic City, New Jersey, between Guyana’s Terrence Ali and IBF lightweight champion Harry Arroyo.

Chapman also served as sports correspondent for the Caribbean News Agency (CANA) and Radio Antilles.

Migrating to the United States in the late 1980s, he pivoted and carved out a successful career as an editor in New York publishing and advertising.

He is survived by a daughter and a large extended family.

He will be cremated and his ashes will be brought to Guyana.