By John Larkin and Staff Writers
First published in The Age on October 18, 1975
Farewell to an editor; back to the world
Melbourne, which he had moved so much, stopped yesterday for Graham Perkin.
Graham Perkin (seated in the armchair) with Age journalists.Credit: The Age Archives
They switched off the traffic lights and laid the flowers along the footpaths. Then the city seemed to stand still.
His memorial service was at Scots Church at 1.15 in the afternoon, yet on this day there was hardly any sense of time at all, and we hardly knew where we were. Lost, almost.
We were crowded together outside and still we stayed apart, for this was very private grief.
Eyes came upon each other and then let go at this great meeting of the years and the people he had touched.
Faces aged while we stood there. People were very white in the sunlight.
Some of the more public people who had known him looked dreadful.
There were many sunglasses and more than one whiff of whisky as people came along, trying to cope with such an empty, unreal day.
All together, journalists can be a fairly formidable tribe, but not yesterday. With their leader lost, they had lost the power of words.
It was enough to come and say goodbye, and go. It had to be.
The church was austere within, but yesterday it was so filled with feeling that by the time Psalm 23 started there was little holding back.
Creighton Burns said we were all diminished by his going, and we felt humble.
The Reverend Alec Fraser said he was a very gallant gentleman, and we felt meek.
We felt blessed, too, for having known him.
Then it was over and we went back to the world to see what we had inherited.
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First published in The Age on October 18, 1975
Melbourne mourns Graham Perkin - 'We are all diminished by his going'
Twelve hundred people packed Scots Church, Collins Street, yesterday for the funeral of Mr. Graham Perkin, former Editor in Chief of "The Age".
Inside the church, mourners occupied all the pews, stood in the aisles and spilled out into the foyer.
Graham Perkin at the editor’s desk at The Age.Credit: The Age Archives
There were politicians, academics, church leaders, artists, trade unionists, sportsmen, TV personalities, senior newspaper executives and a large number of journalists from Victoria and interstate.
Outside on the Russell Street footpath several hundred more people gathered to watch the funeral cortege leave for Springvale Crematorium.
Mr. Perkin, 45, died suddenly at his Sandringham home early on Thursday. He had been Editor since 1966.
His funeral was one of the best attended and visually impressive occasions in Melbourne for many years.
The cortege totalled eight limousines — including six covered in wreaths inside and on the roof. Police blocked off traffic to allow the cortege room to move off.
Before the service, the wreaths were placed in a 20-yard chain along the Russell Street footpath and up the steps into the church.
Graham Perkin.Credit: The Age Archives
Chief mourners were Mr. Perkin's wife, Peggy, son, Stephen, daughter, Corrie, and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Perkin.
The politicians included the Victorian Minister for Fuel and Power (Mr. Balfour), representing the State Government, and the State Opposition Leader (Mr. Holding) and the Labor leader in the Legislative Council (Mr. John Galbally).
Other politicians present included Liberal MHRs Mr. Andrew Peacock and Mr. Tony Staley, Senators Alan Misses and John Button, and State Labor MLA Mr. Barry Jones.
Also there were the ACTU and A.L.P. president (Mr. Hawke), the State A.L.P. chairman (Mr. Peter Redlich), and the State National Party general secretary (Mr. J. W. Cuming).
The Lord Mayor (Cr. Walker) and the Lady Mayoress (Mrs.Walker) attended.
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne (Dr. Little) was there with the Pentridge chaplain (Fr. Brosnan).
David Syme and Co. Limited was represented by its chairman (Lt. Col. E. H. B. Neill), deputy chairman (Mr. R. N. Walford), managing director (Mr. C. R. Macdonald), and directors Mr. A. H. McLachlan and Mr. R. P. Falkingham.
Mourners among executives of "The Age' included the company secretary (Mr. H. Austin), the Deputy Editor (Mr. G. Taylor), the Assistant Editor (Mr. L. Carlyon) and the Associate Editor (Mr. C. Burns).
Representatives from John Fairfax and Sons Ltd. in Sydney included the executive manager (Mr. T. H. Farrell), the executive editor (Mr. D. N. Bowman) and the editorial manager (Mr. G. A. Wilkinson).
From the Herald and Weekly Times Ltd were the managing editor (Mr. Lyle Turnbull), directors Mr. A. Thomas, and Mr. J. Riddle, the editors of the Herald (Mr. John Fitzgerald), and the Sun News-Pictorial (Mr. John Morgan).
The company's former chairman (Sir John Williams) and former editor in chief (Mr. Frank Daly) also were there.
Other news executives included the editor of the Adelaide Advertiser (Mr. D. Colquhoun), the editor of the Canberra Times (Mr. Ian Mathews), the general manager of Australian Associated Press (Mr. Duncan Hooper), AAP editor Mr. Lyall Rowe, the editor in chief of the Sydney Daily Telegraph (Mr. Owen Thomson), and editorial consultant and journalist Mr. David McNicoll.
The Australian Journalists' Association was represented by its Victorian president (Mr. Geoff Gleghorn) and Victorian secretary (Mr. Graham Walsh).
Other mourners included the president of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (Professor E. S. R. Hughes), and Monash University Professor of Fine Arts (Professor Patrick McCaughey).
Also there were TV compere Graham Kennedy, golfer Peter Thomson, the vice-president of the Victoria Institute of Colleges (Dr. Phillip Law), the Acting Chief Commissioner of Police. (Mr. R. Braybrook), artist Neil Douglas and the general secretary of the Victorian Authorised Newsagents' Association (Mr. J. C. Holland).
During the service, Mr. Creighton Burns, Associate Editor of "The Age," said: "Graham Perkin was the most professional newspaperman we knew.
"That was the basis of the loyalty he won without even asking for it. That was the foundation of his authority."
Mr. Burns said Graham Perkin was strong, but not tough. In the end, even his resources were drained as much by his concern as by his remarkable industry.
His contribution to "The Age" and to journalism was unique.
"Those of us who worked with him will remember him not for his title or status, for he had no false pretensions or false dignity," Mr. Burns said.
"We will remember him not sitting in his editor's chair in his office, but in shirt-sleeves at the news desk, laying out his newspaper, anguishing over the words, arguing about the headlines, arguing with everyone."
He was impatient with late or shoddy copy, and concerned that "it should be done now and done right".
He insisted that editorials in "The Age" be "straight and loud and clear". He had no time for "fence-sitters or for the mealy-mouthed".
"He enjoyed himself and his work as a newspaperman hugely, and swept others along with his enthusiasm," Mr. Burns said.
He would be remembered for his "proper anger at exploitation, his dismissal of the pompous and pretentious, his contempt for the manipulators".
He was immensely moved, sometimes to tears, by the misfortune of others.
"We are all diminished by his going," Mr. Burns said.
The Rt. Rev. Alec Fraser, former moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Victoria, said Graham Perkin was "a very gallant gentleman, a great citizen and a true patriot."
He had "a determination to support and strengthen everything he felt was for the good of this Commonwealth, to expose and condemn all that was detrimental to his country's welfare, and to unveil and unmask deceit and hypocrisy."
He wielded tremendous power through his editorship of "The Age" and "he knew this full well because he was a realist."
"But it never led to any arrogance or false pride," Mr. Fraser said.
"Pride there was. It was the pride of an editor helping to produce a really great newspaper. The pride of one determined to make that paper better and stronger year by year."
He had a sense of humility, realising how onerous his responsibility was. He wielded power with integrity, courage and outstanding ability.
"His seeming toughness was the shield of a naturally shy man," Mr. Fraser said.
But he was strong, courageous, and never cowed by the fear or favor of the crowd.
"He could be argumentative, but this was to arrive at the truth," Mr. Fraser said.
"He was ready to admit he was wrong on the rare occasions when he was.
"He was a great journalist and a great editor, and part of his greatness sprung from his infectious enthusiasm and energy, and the fact that he was one of the extremely fortunate band of men doing what he wanted to do more than anything else in the world."