The family of Anthony Watts would like to invite members of the community to celebrate his life on Monday, December 17.
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The funeral is at 12pm at the Innes Gardens Memorial Park in Port Macquarie. A wake is at the Laurieton Hotel from about 1.30pm.
Anthony was a former journalist at the Camden Haven Courier.
He started his journalist career at the Courier when he was 17-years-old.
“Laurie Sullivan stuck his head out the door and asked if I wanted a job,” Anthony wrote in a 2014 article.
“I’m not sure if my dad, Press, who was working there are the time, had a word in his ear, but the adage of ‘who you know’ may have worked way back then as well.
“Thanks to Laurie and wife Athlea, I became a journalist, albeit without the degree from university.
“I was moulded into a journalist with an interest in all things community.”
Anthony eventually moved to Port Macquarie and later to Newcastle, where he spent 14 years.
He moved back to the Camden Haven in 2014.
Anthony’s niece Shelley Watts described her uncle as ‘very charismatic’ and a 'word smith’, who made everyone around him feel loved.
Shelley said she had a ‘special bond’ with her uncle, who supported her throughout all her successes.
Anthony wrote in 2014 his niece Shelley ‘is making history at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games as a female boxer’.
“Dedication and drive mean more to me than anything, so the result makes no difference,” he said.
Anthony was 52 years old when he passed away earlier this week, due to complications from an infection.