Yusuff Ali passes away at age 85

VETERAN broadcaster and newspaper columnist Yusuff Ali died peacefully on Sunday at his home in London, England.
He was 85.
The Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) shared the thoughts of two other veteran journalists, Dominic Kalipersad and Neil Giuseppi, who worked with him and described him not only as a pioneer in the field of journalism in Trinidad and Tobago but as an individual who helped shape the media landscape as we know it in T&T today.
“His rich voice, charming smile, and piercing interview style endeared him to viewers of Panorama, the flagship evening news programme of the-then lone television station (Trinidad and Tobago Television),” said Kalipersad. 
“A former teacher at Five Rivers TIA School, Ali’s entry to media, however, began in radio. He was among those who opened 610 Radio (Radio Guardian) in September 1957. It was there that he learned the craft of radio broadcasting, news-writing and broadcast journalism,” he said.
“Under the tutelage of media heavyweights such as Larry Heywood, Frank Hughes and Ed Fung, Ali worked alongside great radio personalities such as Desmond Bourne, Freddie Wharwood and Ashton Chambers, as well as ace reporters John Babb and Geoff Lewis,” Kalipersad added.
Eventually, he became chief editor at the station, where they pioneered hourly news bulletins.
After four years at 610 Radio, Ali left to take up an announcer’s position at Barbados Rediffusion and, later, as an international functionary at a United Nations agency in Geneva.
In the late sixties, he returned to Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT) in the post of news director/Panorama producer and built a news team that started the journalistic careers of Giuseppi, Dale Kolasingh and Jai Parasram.
Ali left TTT in 1975 for a position at the Commonwealth Secretariat at Marlborough House in London.
For 25 years he wrote a newspaper column, first with the Sunday Guardian then with Newsday.
Broadcaster Giuseppi described Ali as one of the greatest news personalities this country has known.
“When I joined Trinidad and Tobago Television in July 1971, Yusuff was the news director and on that day began a friendship that I have always treasured and I became part of a team that day that comprised Yusuff, Ed Fung and Dale Kolasingh, all of whom have now passed to the Great Beyond,” he said.
He said that Ali was the consummate professional who insisted on standards of excellence at all times.
“ ‘There’s a time for work and a time for play’, he would say, ‘and when it’s time for work, I don’t want to hear about play’. And he lived that philosophy to the hilt,” said Giuseppi.
“Yusuff, my friend and mentor, you have left an indelible mark on the news media in Trinidad and Tobago and this country will always owe you a debt of gratitude,” he said.
(Source: The Daily Express, November 2, 2022)