Ron Hegarty, a stalwart of villlage life in Staplehurst, has died.

Mr Hegarty was born in 1936 and grew up in South East London. He did his National Service in the Royal Air Force, spending most of his time in Germany.

He moved to Bathhurst Road in Staplehurst in 1963 and lived in the same house ever since.

Initially he commuted to London, working for Yorkshire Television.

He helped to set up Channel Television, but grew tired of the daily train journey and so in 1971 joined the Kent Messenger’s advertising department, then in Week Street, Maidstone. He was one of the first of the company’s employees through the door when the KM opened its new base at Larkfield, where Mr Hegarty became a page planner.

In 1973, he moved on to Clout and Baker, printers at Park Wood, but retained a connection with the KM by becoming the village correspondent for Staplehurst, a position he was to hold for a record 38 years until his retirement on his 75th birthday in November, 2011. He also covered Hawkhurst for the last five years of that time.

His final full-time employment was with the Automobile Association as a call-taker, assisting motorists in trouble.

On retirement he had an annual job going door-to-door updating the electoral roll and, at the time of most elections, he served as a clerk at the polling station.

One of the yearly tasks he enjoyed was selling poppies for the British Legion Annual Poppy Appeal.

He also served as a parish councillor for 12 years from 1979 to 1991, and, as he had a keen interest in photography, he provided many photographs of daily life in the village for the parish council’s website.

Mr Hegarty was also part of the small team that produced the parish magazine, the monthly publication of the parish church of All Saints.

A committed Christian, Mr Hegarty organised trips to the Holy Land, to Greece to follow in the footsteps of St Paul, and to Oberammergau in Germany, for its passion plays. He was a member of the church choir and a sidesman at All Saints’.

His hobbies included classical music and he was the secretary of the Maidstone Orchestral Society.

He was a member of the Allington Archery Club and a long-term member of Marden Bowls Club.

Fellow bowls club member Peter Spearlink said: “Ron was very well respected and played a prominent role in village life. Although he never blew his own trumpet, he was always beavering away at something.”

Parish Councillor Joan Buller said: “Ron was a very committed and hard-working parish councillor. He loved Staplehurst and worked for the good of all. He was a leading light in managing our website and bringing the council into the computer age. Thank you Ron!”

His delight at Christmas time was to play the role of Father Christmas, when he’d let the children pull his beard to prove that he was real.

Geraldine Allinson, chairman of the Kent Messenger Group, said: "Ron was a loyal and valued friend to the Kent Messenger.

"In 38 years and six months as a village correspondent, he never once missed a copy deadline, filing from his hospital bed during a spell of ill-health in 1993 and from Melbourne, Australia, on another when on holiday there. We shall miss him."

Mr Hegarty died on Thursday, June 30, in the Tunbridge Wells Hospital at Pembury, after suffering a heart attack and pneumonia. He was 78.

Mr Hegarty leaves his wife of 57 years, Dorothy (Dot), his three daughters - Alison, Claire and Frances, and seven grandchildren.

The funeral will be at All Saints on Friday, July 17, at 3pm.