He died at the age of 77 on January 11, a year after suffering from a series of strokes

His 60-year-career in journalism, which began at the Leamington Morning News in the 1940s, included him being editor-in-chief at West Suffolk Newspapers and editor of the Diss Express.

But Ron Hunt (right) will be most famously remembered as the editor who single-handely published the daily Northamp-tonshire Evening Telegraph at Kettering during a 24-week strike by journalists in 1976-77, the longest strike in the history of the National Union of Journalists.

In 1992, Mr Hunt established his own journalist training business and his achievements were recognised in the same year when he was made an MBE for his services to the profession.

Then in 2006 he was named as one of the top 40 people in the history of regional journalism by Press Gazette, the industry's own newspaper.

Mr Hunt's widow Joan, who also hails from Leamington, said: "He was a very good husband and father and quite a character.

"He was a person I felt very proud of and he always worked very hard for everybody.

"From his job point of view he was very aware of his responsibilities.

"He always did his best and felt very strongly about the training of journalists, which he helped with for many years."

"He was very good with people.

"He was very moral and I felt that he always tried to do the right thing."

Before starting as a trainee reporter Mr Hunt was an office boy in Leamington.

He spent his national service in the RAF before returning to the newspaper industry in Birmingham, working for the Gazette, Despatch and Sunday Mercury Group.

After returning to the Leamington Morning News and Courier as chief reporter, he later moved to Bury St Edmunds as editor in 1971 and then on to Kettering in 1974.

He was subsequently appointed to the post of executive editor of EMAP's newspaper division at Peterborough and, three years later, took up the editorship of the Diss Express division in 1986.

In more recent years he made a name for himself as an industry consultant.

One of his colleagues in Leamington and a long-standing friend, former chief photographer Frank Cooper, said: "Ron Hunt was a great character, a one-off.

Read more from the Diss Express tribute.