Tony Howard’s suspense file was legendary. A box file with internal memos, reports and latterly printed out emails, which he would go through at least once a day. It was the terror of tardy managers and errant editors in Cape Town, Durban, Kimberley, Johannesburg and Pretoria who break out in a cold sweat on receiving an ostensibly innocent call from the CEO wanting an update on something they had long forgotten.

Howard, who died in a Johannesburg hospital on Thursday, July 18 after a long illness, bravely borne, was renowned for his encyclopaedic memory and his unsurpassed work ethic. His car would perpetually be in its usual parking bay in B1 of The Star building at 47 Sauer Street (Today Pixley ka Isaka Seme Street) by the time the editor came in and often by the time the editor went home that night.

Around 9pm, the night editor would look up from their desk to Howard, just checking on how everyone was, before he went home for the day. He wouldn’t ask what was in the paper, because he was an old school newspaper manager who respected the Chinese wall between editorial and management, even if it meant fending off a deluge of telephone calls in his 6th Floor eyrie from irate advertisers, unmasked politicians or caught out sports stars – and their lawyers - when a younger editor would go off on a Quixotic crusade on the front page.

Cape Town. 201115. Independent Newspapers Executive Chairman Dr Iqbal Surve congratulates former CEO of Independent Newspapers Tony Howard on his retirement during a special function held for him at the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town on Friday. With him from left are Dee Howard and Madagascar Consul-General Barry Rafatrolaza . Picture Ian Landsberg

Howard always had their back, but he was no pushover, far from it. He had a visceral understanding of the basic economics of newspapering and loathed wasteful and over-expenditure with the same passion as if the funds had come out of his own account. His personal frugality was legendary, remembered his wife, Dee; “he always bought his suits at Fietas and his shirts and shoes from Woolworths, he was appalled when I once bought him a Hugo Boss shirt,” she laughed.

His determination to succeed stemmed from his own humble beginnings growing up on the East Rand of Johannesburg, today Ekurhuleni, in Germiston. After matriculating from Germiston High School, he did his national service and then started work with the Central News Agency (CNA) as a trainee accountant on March 31, 1970.

The date was specially chosen, he told the company’s in-house magazine at the time of his retirement. “I didn’t want to start on April Fool’s Day, so I started a day earlier.”

He was later transferred to CNA Publishing which would later become Allied Publishing, the biggest distributors of newspapers on the continent at the time. He studied accounting at night, later enrolling on a 10-year odyssey with Unisa, where he juggled working, being a husband and three three month-long military camps, before eventually graduating with a B.Comm degree.

10/3/06 Tony Howard, the CEO of Independent Newspapers showing President Thabo Mbeki the new Cape Argus newspaper. Picture: Liza van Deventer

After Allied Publishing he was promoted to the head office of the Argus Company, which owned Allied, as financial manager, before becoming financial director.

During this first period at head office, he was part of the team that managed the company’s share in the newly formed M-Net, as well as the seed funding for the establishment of a brand-new private radio station, today known as Talk Radio 702.

When, he left Argus head office in April 1993 to run the company’s Cape operations which included the Cape Argus, the Cape Times, Weekend Argus and the Cape Community Newspapers, Argus Holdings was the biggest publisher of English language newspapers in Africa, through its own wholly owned newspaper titles and its 36% share of what was then Times Media Limited, which lives on today as Arena holdings. The Argus company also had a 50% share in CTP Holdings, the owners of Caxton’s community newspapers; a third share in the CNA Gallo, which published books and music and ran the Nu Metro cinema chain, a quarter of Maister’s which published the telephone directories and 18% of M-Net, which was about to diversify into cellular telephony and found MTN.

On his return to Johannesburg in December the following year, once more as financial director, Howard’s next task was to separate Argus Newspapers from the group and list it as a separate company on the JSE prior to its sale to the late Irish businessman Tony O’Reilly’s Independent Newspapers in 1995.

The acquisition was a major step for the Irish company, which until then had consisted of community newspapers in Australia and a couple of mainstream newspapers in Ireland. The South African acquisition would fund O’Reilly’s purchase of a half share in the London Independent and then a full share, which would in turn lead to a global acquisition spree and ultimately, 17 years later, the international holding company’s demise.

Having managed the listing of the company, Howard, who had been appointed Chief Operating Officer in the O’Reilly era and then Chief Executive Officer, then oversaw its delisting when the Irish took full control. When the Irish needed to sell their assets, it was Howard once again who took charge of the process, soliciting bids and shortlisting them.

Independent Newspapers was eventually sold to Cape Town doctor Iqbal Surve and his consortium in 2012, who redubbed the group Independent Media. Howard was made deputy chair to Surve’s executive chair and for the next two years oversaw the transition to the new company before retiring in December 2015, after just shy of 46 years unbroken service to the company.

109 Tony Howard, President Jacob Zuma and The Star Editor Moegsien Williams arrive for lunch at The Star Building. 260609. Picture: Bongiwe Mchunu

Following his retirement, he was special counsel to Terry Moolman, the owner of CTP Holdings, who he had known from the days when Argus was a shareholder in the company. Howard assisted Moolman with the rationalisation of CTP’s magazine division and the acquisition of the Witness newspaper in Pietermaritzburg.

Howard witnessed and lived through some of the most momentous times of modern South Africa: the legal minefield of publishing during the apartheid states of emergency, the growing pains of the new South Africa, the high drama recall of Jacob Zuma as Deputy President, his arraignment on charges of rape, his recall to the party and return to the Union Buildings, from his own office looking across the road into Luthuli House.

20324.02.2012Gugu Ndebele(L), CEO of Independent Newspapers Tony Howard(C) hands an award to Leigh Michael Dunn from Formosa primary school in Western Cape for Excellence in special needs teaching, during the National Teaching Awards 2011 at the Sandton Conversion Centre, Johannesburg.Picture:Itumeleng English

Howard had managed unprecedented societal change and technological advances literally from hot metal printing that hadn’t changed much since Gutenberg invented movable type to desk top publishing and ultimately tweeting off a smartphone. It was a source of immense pride that during his 12-year tenure as CEO of Independent Newspapers, the company had not just remained profitable but had increased its profitability each progressive year, because he knew that this was the only way to create a sustainable independent media.

Revered by many, feared by some, respected by all, Tony Howard was the last of the great newspaper managers, if not one of the best, in an era that now only exists in yellowing newspaper files, history books and the fading memories of those privileged to have experienced it too.

He is survived by his wife, Dee, and their daughter Claire. There was no public funeral. His final wish was for a family memorial service with any donations in lieu of flowers to be made to a South African journalism school to fund training for journalists from underprivileged backgrounds.

• Kevin Ritchie is a former editor of the Diamond Fields Advertiser in Kimberley and The Star in Johannesburg.