I didn't know David Thomas, who has died aged 52. But I knew a great story about him that was endlessly retold by those of us who served under Robert Maxwell.
As a young reporter he was standing in on the Sunday People newsdesk when he had the misfortune to take a call from Robert Maxwell.
Aware that all new newsdesk recruits were subject to prank calls by people imitating Maxwell's booming voice, he decided not to get caught out and put the phone down.
The phone rang again. So he hung up again. The third time he told the caller to "bugger off" (the exact expletive used has always been a matter of speculation).
Anyway, it was Maxwell all along and in realising that fact - on the fourth call - he wisely gave a false name when Maxwell inquired who he was (as, incidentally, did his admiring colleagues).
That tale is told in today's obituary in the Daily Telegraph, where Thomas is remembered mainly for helping to run the Bristol-based South West News Service (SWNS).
During his time, the agency developed from a small business into Britain's biggest independent news agency. And hundreds of journalists were trained there, including many who rose to senior positions in Fleet Street.
Thomas trained at journalism college in Cardiff before joining the fledgling agency in Bristol while also doing shifts on The People.
As news editor, he oversaw SWNS's growth into an agency that employed 140 staff with offices in Bristol, Plymouth, Cambridge, the Midlands, Yorkshire, and Scotland.
Among the many who benefited from his supervision were the editors of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, Tony Gallagher and Ian MacGregor respectively, as well as James Scott of The People, and Tina Weaver, former editor of the Sunday Mirror.
Older journalists, such as Sydney Young, Vic Chapple and Alun Rees, admired Thomas's achievements.
In 2003, he founded Medavia, a media company specifically aimed as generating and managing press coverage for people who became embroiled in national news stories, or with a story to sell.
Three years ago, Thomas was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis and was given a year to live unless a donor for a lung transplant could be found. None was ever forthcoming.
Thomas, a devout Buddhist, was interviewed last year at a meditation centre by the Bristol Post. He told the paper: "This dying lark isn't nearly as awful as it's cracked up to be…
"From the moment someone tells you you're dying, you see the world very differently. You value everything so much, it's actually quite wonderful."
Sources: Daily Telegraph/Bristol Post/Private knowledge
