After a long-term battle with Alzheimer’s well-known journalist and broadcaster Bob McNeil has passed away.
McNeil worked at TV3 as a journalist and a presenter for twenty years, ten of which we’re alongside former presenter Mike McRoberts.
“As a gifted storyteller he always pushed the boundaries and could bring the most mundane subjects alive with his creativity. No one could to a piece to camera using a prop like Bob” McRoberts told Te Ao Māori News.
McNeil was born in Wellington in 1943 to parents Neil and Jean McNeil, and his childhood was spent in St Bathans, North Otago, Okato, Taranaki, Waipukurau, Hawkes Bay and back to Hawera, Taranaki.
His broadcasting career spanned across print, radio and in 1989 he made the move to TV.
“Bob’s real mana came from the human way he told gritty, hard news stories. His work at the 2002 Boxing Day Tsunami was world class” McRoberts said.
Veteran Māori broadcaster Tini Molyneux recalls working alongside McNeil and remembers him as a journalist with unwavering integrity.
“I a au i Te Reo Tātaki, i 3 News ia, ā, arā etahi wā i mahi ngātahi ai māua ki te kawe i ngā kaupapa nui o aua wā rā. He tangata ngākau nui ki ana mahi, ā, kaore e kore ka pā pouri ko tōnā whānau”
“When I was at TVNZ, he was at 3 News and we’d often be covering together some of the big stories. He loved his job, no doubt his whānau will be feeling his loss” she said.
Taking to social media, other New Zealand journalists paid tribute to McNeil.
1 News Pacific Correspondent Barbara Dreaver described him as a ‘damn fine journo and a gentleman”
His daughter Sacha McNeil is also a well-known journalist and news presenter.
McRoberts says he will remember McNeil as an influential broadcaster and a genuinely lovely man.
“E tangi hotuhotu nei te ngākau i te rironga o tētahi tino rangatira” he added.
Details of McNeils funeral arrangements are yet to be finalised.
