Richard Matrenza writes:

Anton Cassar started his journalistic journey in the Maltese daily Il-Berqa. This newspaper – which, incidentally, had its swansong at the hands of Anton, indirectly, in the final years of the 1950s – came from the same stable as this English daily, then in the hands and entire jurisdiction of the Strickland family.

I had the honour and the pleasure to meet and learn much from this talented unassuming journalist in mid- to late 1959 when I formed part of a small team, which, in October of that year, helped to launch It-Torċa as a Sunday paper.

He also introduced me to the poet and philosopher Rabrindranath Tagore. If not an outright philosopher himself, Anton was overtly philosophical about life and its vicissitudes.

This became very evident when his daughter, still in her childhood, met death suddenly in truly tragic circumstances when she fell into a well during a picnic with her parents on a tranquil Sunday afternoon.

Anton, then in his mid- to late-30s, and his charming though reserved young wife, also in her 30s, must have shown superhuman resilience and courage in facing this loss. I remember distinctly their solid attachment and reciprocal support to continue moving on in life while burdened with the memory of a loss of a beloved, beautiful young daughter.

In his younger days, Anton enjoyed the beauty and serenity of the enchanting village of Żebbuġ in Gozo, then unspoiled, practically virgin territory. The natural scenery must have sparked in his tender, sensitive mind his love for nature and his ability to write poetry and intelligible Maltese as he matured in the social, economic and political sensitivity of Maltese and Gozitan life.

He was also responsible, in his adult life, to encourage men and women to ramble in our idyllic countryside.

In 1962, he left his employer at Strickland House, at the top of St Paul’s Street, Valletta, to move to Mayfair House, practically at the bottom of Old Bakery Street, also in Valletta. From there he was responsible for the launching and editing of l-orizzont, a Maltese daily, which is still running, when the print media has taken a tumbling.

When he left the editor’s desk at l-orizzont after many years of able stewardship, he moved up in the world – not an Irish promotion – to become the administrative secretary of the Union Press/Print publications and the commercial printing and publishing side of the enterprise.

Anton continued his passion of the printed world both in his regular contributions as an opinion guru and as author of a solid number of books in the Sensiela Kotba Soċjalisti (SKS), the brainchild of his close friend and associate, Alfred Sant, whom he accompanied on the campaign trail doing door-to-door canvassing in the hustings when Sant was running for elections as an MP in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

For scores of years, Anton had a strong association with Marsa, the suburb of the capital Valletta, and, in particular, with the Holy Trinity Band Club and their truly Catholic approach and celebrations of a Maltese feast.

At the venerable age of four scores years and 10, Anton passed from the respite home, where he had been for some time, to that part of time and space and to the undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns.

Anton Cassar died on June 30, 2014.