My husband, Ivor Lewis, who has died aged 91, was a journalist who helped to lead regional newspapers into the era of new technology.
He was born in Newport, south Wales, one of five children of Herbert Lewis, an accountant and commercial traveller in the Welsh valleys, and his wife, Edith (nee Cox), who had worked in a department store until her marriage. Ivor attended Newport high school for boys and, after serving in the army for four years during the second world war, read history at Oriel College, Oxford.
On graduating, he joined the South Wales Echo in Cardiff as a trainee journalist. Later, he worked on the weekly Cardiff Times as editor, and on the daily Western Mail. He then joined the Sunday Times in London, as assistant editor to Mark Boxer on the first colour newspaper magazine in the UK.
In 1966, Ivor and his team set up the Evening Echo to serve Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire – using photo-typesetting at a time when hot metal was still the norm – and he edited it for 10 years. His last post was as chief London editor of Thomson Regional Newspapers.
His first wife, Mary, from whom he separated, died in 2007. He and I met in 1980, and on Ivor’s retirement in 1986 we moved to Nevern in Pembrokeshire, where we lived for 28 happy years, marrying in 2009.
His life was greatly enriched by joining the World Community for Christian Meditation, with its regular meetings for silent meditation and links to other faiths.
Ivor was a gentle man, who found great happiness in our families and friends, our garden and the countryside, listening to music and reading.
He is survived by Sarah and Gregory, his children with Mary, his grandson, Christian, two brothers, two sisters and me.
