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A tribute to Brian Barron by his daughter

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Jon Williams Jon Williams | 10:12 UK time, Thursday, 24 September 2009

I wanted to thank so many of you for your kind comments following Brian Barron's death a week ago - and to share this from Brian's daughter Fleur.
---
By Fleur Barron

"My dad's stories were excellent bed-time fodder for a five-year-old with an over-active imagination. Growing up, my favourites were his entertaining stories about his time in Kenya, which always had a comic flair and hint of the absurd.

I remember one account that never failed to send me into gales of laughter - the story of the farting elephant. Dad would recount his interview with a famous Italian sculptor, who was making a plaster-cast of an anesthetised elephant. Miming the action with exaggerated gestures, dad demonstrated how the sculptor had lifted the elephant's tail to pat the plaster down over its rear, when it emitted a loud raspberry that propelled the unfortunate man several meters through the air. For me, the best parts of the story were always dad's raucous sound effects and giant leap backwards at the climax.

As I got older, I continued to live vicariously through my dad's accounts of his adventures and exploits on the job - I often asked if I could accompany him, offering my services (free of charge, naturally) as the boom-holder for the mic. Occasionally, if the assignment wasn't too dangerous and my mum was able to accompany us, I was invited to come along. Once it was to North Korea as he investigated reports of famine in a totalitarian state closed to the outside world.

Watching him in action, I think I always saw him as a modern 007 - he had the cool, the composure, the authority, and the taste for dapper suits. Armani, of course. But beyond this, I was also struck by his gritty determination and professionalism - he never reneged on a commitment, and he was incredibly resourceful in finding a way to make his angle work, no matter what.

In high school and university, when I had my own research assignments on some of the grislier events and topics he had covered in his career, like the Vietnam War or the genocide in Rwanda, I used to push him to reveal details of what he had seen and experienced in these places. He rarely indulged me, saying he didn't want to discuss things he had so effectively compartmentalised years ago. For a while, I never understood why he chose to continuously put himself in situations that would strain the emotional and mental limits of most people. But gradually, I realised that his passion for this kind of work lay in his gift of clarity and awareness in crisis situations, and above all, his desire to discover and reveal the underlying truth of a matter to a mass audience.

At the end of the day, what I admire most about my dad was his essential optimism and joie de vivre. People who knew him well would be surprised if a long day's work was finished without a vintage wine and a good meal. At home in New York, there was nothing better he liked to do than to stroll through Central Park - en famille - to the local movie theatre or take a brisk walk down Broadway to catch the latest opera instalment at the Met. Dad certainly knew what it meant to enjoy life and although his own has been cut short, he has lived more fully and wholeheartedly than anyone I know."

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    Jon, thanks for allowing Brian Barron's daughter to write this tribute regarding her father....

    Fleur Barron: Thanks, for the perfect letter of tribute regarding
    the good deeds and aspects of his life.....


    ~Dennis Junior~

  • Comment number 2.

    Great letter - also apposite at the moment given the debate over the quality of our lives and the quantity of our allocation as highlighted by Sir Terry Pratchett.

  • Comment number 3.

    he sounds like a wonderful father, a wonderful human being, a wonderful man. God rest his soul, and give solace to his family.

  • Comment number 4.

    I'm sure Brian wouldn't have allowed this to pass by unnoticed. Worthy of more attention perhaps?

  • Comment number 5.

    I remember Mr Baron staying behind in ; (he could have been shot!) Saigon as the NVA tanks broke through the US Embassy gates; the soldiers with their red neckerchiefs
    'How do you do' or something like that Mr Barron said- brilliant !
    You would not have kept him out of Gaza; he with Martha Gelhorne; James Cameron; Wynford Vaughan Thomas; Richard Dimbleby; Kate Adie; Martin Bell; Tim Page; Ed Murrow; Alan Whicker; John Simpson and your present brilliant war reporter Ms Whiley. these people earn their money

  • Comment number 6.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 7.

    In reply to comments made @ #4:

    Talking of Brian Barron, "SheffTim", I'm sure that Brain would not have ever tried to hijack (what is in effect) an obituary to make a political point on some other issue. He would never have allowed himself to stoop so low...

  • Comment number 8.

    I am at a loss to understand why this tribute, beautiful as it is, is standing as a blog item. First I have heard many such tributes paid to people who have died and second couldn't this have been appended to the original item as an update?

    I am very uneasy about ´óÏó´«Ã½ "nepotism", on the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s focus of its own "celebrity passing", repeatedly found in HYS and sometimes in these blogs. I can understand people wanting to pay tribute to those who pass, but can you not have a specific place for people to leave such memories?

    To make my point a little more profoundly, the blog on the BNP was closed on 132 comments - why? No doubt some will feel this is stooping low but somehow, from my memories of Brian Barron, he would have understood.

  • Comment number 9.

    About Argentine tango as part of World's Cultural Heritage: Too bad the photograph shown on ´óÏó´«Ã½ depicts an English balroom dance couple instead of an Argentine tango dance couple. One has nothing to do with the other.

  • Comment number 10.

    I can only hope that my children remember the stories I tell them so fondly
    However, I do now have this story about a farting elephant that, with a bit of tweaking to make it more personal, I think I can use... :-)
    My condolences to Fleur, her family and those who knew Brian Barron

  • Comment number 11.

    We knew Brian when he flew in and out of Hong Kong together with Bob Kearsley and Eric. We had the utmost admiration for them as a team - the story was always more important than they were. Some current ´óÏó´«Ã½ staff could learn from this! Lost touch as we all moved round the world in pre-email days. So sorry to find, only upon his death, that we now live quite close to each. A lovely tribute, Fleur.

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