ABC mourns death of chief of staff Bernie Keenan
One of the ABC’s worst months for losing respected personnel ended last night with the sudden passing of Bernie Keenan, chief of staff in the ABC’s Sydney newsroom.
Keenan had begun his career as a cameraman in commercial TV working internationally before returning to Australia as chief of staff for the Seven Network.
Kate Torney, director of ABC News said: “Bernie drove our news gathering operations in New South Wales and was a central figure across the network. He was a warm and generous colleague and we will miss him greatly.”
Don Lange, the ABC’s head of news programming said: “Bernie was a stalwart of the newsroom and will be sadly missed in Sydney and around the Network.
August 18 saw the deaths of ABC journalist Paul Lockyer, cameraman John Bean and media pilot Gary Ticehurst in a helicopter accident. And Ian Carroll, the ABC’s director of innvation also passed away.