Harry Gordon went to war with Bomber Command in 1941 and died in the skies above Cologne in 1945 just weeks before the conflict ended.

But his love of the Gold Coast and its beaches inspired that same passion in his young son, a love affair which continues more than 70 years later.

Mr Gordon, the former editor of the Gold Coast Bulletin, this week found that love rewarded when he was granted the keys to the city by a unanimous vote of the Gold Coast City Council.

The Florida Gardens resident said he was “enormously honoured” by the award and that it brought back thoughts of his father, a clubbie at Bilinga Surf Life Saving Club.

“Gee, the first thing that comes to mind is that my dad was a clubbie here in the ’30s,” he said.

“He was killed in the war but he would have been so proud.”

Mr Gordon was awarded the Keys to the City this week for his “outstanding contribution to the Gold Coast over many decades’.

Mayor Tom Tate said the retired newspaperman had been a strong advocate since permanently relocating to the Gold Coast in the 1990s.

“By actively contributing to our community across local boards, through his leadership at the Gold Coast Bulletin and ultimately by leading the bid to secure the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games as a founding chairman of the bid team, he has certainly left a legacy that should never be forgotten,” the Mayor said.

“He has been described by colleagues as visionary, dedicated, selfless and driven.”

His nomination was endorsed by three people who had previously received the prestigious award – businessman John Witheriff, Kerry Watson and Dr Patrick Corrigan.

Mr Gordon grew up in Brisbane and spent decades living in Canberra and working in the state’s capital, but he always came back to the Gold Coast, first to holiday and ultimately live.

After having lived through the city growing from a collection of small towns into Australia’s sixth-largest city, the old newshound said he had an abiding love of the Gold Coast and its people.

“This is a city I love for its risk-taking and its entrepreneurs,” the 77-year-old said.

“This is a have-a-go city, a place of risk-takers which is uninhibited by social engineering.

“This is not a wowser town, this is the white shoe brigade and people who are willing to put it all on the line.

“Plus we have the best sand and the best surf.”

Growing up in Brisbane, Mr Gordon played rugby at Nudgee College and as a teenager he would often hitchhike to the Gold Coast to go swimming at the beach.

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His long journalism career took him from the Northern Star in Lismore to the Canberra Times where, for 17 years, he witnessed up close the prime ministerships of Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, Harold Holt, John Gorton, William McMahon, Gough Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke.

In the mid-1980s he returned to Brisbane and worked at the Courier-Mail and Sunday-Mail for a decade during the Fitzgerald Inquiry.

In 1997 he was appointed editor in chief of the Gold Coast Bulletin, a position he held until his retirement in mid-2009.

In the past nine years he has sat on many boards.