Tributes flow for late Australian newsreader and quiz host Richard Morecroft

The first time I met Richard Morecroft was at the Crows Nest Hotel, a short walk from the ABC’s Gore Hill studios. This was 1986. I was mid-20s, working behind the bar. Richard was more like 30, the media star making a rare cameo for his single drink. Tongue-tied, I didn’t start a conversation. Nor did Richard recall this episode when we ended up working together some 30 years later.

Then again, why would he? Richard was a constant in our lounge room, and I was an arts grad earning travel money. He was the voice of confirmation, the emotional anchor of the Space Shuttle disaster which happened that same month. In fact, it was around this time Richard had adopted Archie, the orphaned grey-headed flying fox. For all I know, he might have smuggled the little guy into the pub. I can’t say. We never chatted. And he left soon after.

Advance the clock, switch the setting. We meet as colleagues, along with a maths whiz called Lily Serna, the three of us co-hosts of SBS’s Letters and Numbers in 2010. If you haven’t seen the show, think parlour games dabbling with equations or anagrams. Lily aligned the numbers, while I flapped the dictionary to verify words. Sitting at the calm centre, Richard was the puzzle ambassador, with licence to play.

And he loved it, and we loved him. Everyone loved Richard, the reasons multiple. Leigh Sales, a long-time ABC friend, on marking Richard’s death last week, described him as both a gentleman, and a gentle man. Which was perfect. Gentle is the first word that sprang to my mind too. For Lily, it was grand. For both of us: generous.