THE death took place yesterday of Mr Alan Montgomery, a former editor of The Irish Times. For 14 years he was chief information officer at Guinness. He died after a long illness.
Alan Montgomery, known as Monty to all, was born in England in 1910 but was moved to Ireland within two weeks of his birth and brought up in Skerries and Malahide, where he was educated privately.
His father, Leslie Montgomery, was a bank manager, but was better known as a novelist and broadcaster under the pen name Lynn Doyle.
Montgomery joined The Irish Times as a junior reporter at the age of 24 in 1934, with the late R.M. Smyllie as his editor.
Seven years later he became chief reporter, as the post of news editor was then called. Later, he said his years as news editor of The Irish Times gave him the most satisfaction of any post.
In 1959, he was appointed assistant editor in charge of news co ordinating, working directly under the editor.
When The Irish Times bought the Evening Mail in September 1960, he became managing editor. In November 1961 he was appointed editor of The Irish Times.
He remained in the post only until October 1963, when he went to work for Guinness Ireland. He retired from Guinness in November 1977.
While working at The Irish Times he was also Dublin correspondent for Time Life publications. He spent some of his holidays working for the American news magazine, Time, at its London bureau and was highly influenced by its style.
His most significant contribution to Irish journalism was as chief reporter or news editor. He was the youngest chief reporter in the country when appointed and he introduced a less formal style of writing. This was credited with allowing a new generation of journalists, many of whom had broadened their outlook in the British armed forces in the war, to experiment with different styles of writing.
He allowed his reporters to move away from the strict news style of writing, introducing what later became known as feature writing into The Irish Times.
He introduced the specialist reporter to Irish newspapers, with the appointment of air and shipping correspondents, along with the traditional political correspondents.
He was involved in writing the first Irish Times style book, the first for any Irish newspaper.
He was first approached by Guinness to advise on filling the post of information officer, but he applied for the post when it was advertised.
He never said publicly why he left The Irish Times. Editors of Irish newspapers were expected to retire in office, not leave for other"jobs. However, there is no doubt Guinness would have paid much better than newspapers at that time, and there is also a view that changes then being introduced at the newspaper did not suit a man who joined when R.M. Smyllie was editor.
In Guinness, there was no doubt he was a poacher turned gamekeeper. He had demonstrated little time for public relations when in journalism. Yet, when he was with Guinness, there were few more loyal to the company.
Later when he retired from Guinness he went to work for the public relations company Murray Consultants, where he remained until about four years ago.
He retained his interest in journalism, and was for many years chairman of the judging panel for the Journalist Of The Year competition.
He had a lifelong interest in sailing and for 12 years was champion of the Dublin Bay 17s class.
He is survived by his wife, Berteen, and two daughters, Meriel and Wyn.
