Former Channel 9 information director and 60 Minutes govt producer John Westacott has died aged 73.
Westacott, an enormous of the 9 Community, died after struggling a suspected medical episode on Sydney Harbour on the weekend.
The avid sailor was pulled from the water in Vaucluse about 1.30pm on Sunday and couldn't be revived.
Westacott, who retired from 9 in 2009, is being remembered by colleagues as a 'journalist's journo'.
Michael Healy, 9's Director of TV, and Darren Wick, 9's Nationwide Director of Information and Present Affairs launched a joint assertion following his dying.
"John Westacott was a trailblazer of Australian journalism.
"The longest-serving and most profitable Government Producer of 60 Minutes, a driving power of A Present Affair and a visionary with 9 because the Nationwide Director of Information and Present Affairs.
"Westy was an enigma. There was no-one like him. He did not care about political correctness and would publicly declare that.
"He did not care the place you got here from, nor about your gender, ethnicity or spiritual and political views. He cared about whether or not you had the eagerness and skill to inform a terrific story.
"His lifelong love was 60 Minutes. He was fearless as he pushed his staff to report among the best tales and interviews Australians have ever seen. And he was ferocious in defending his staff towards any criticism - externally and internally.
"Westy had a laser-like focus and an unimaginable instinct on what 60 Minutes meant to
Australian viewers and what they needed to see from this system each Sunday night time.
"Throughout his later years with 9, because the Head of Information and Present Affairs, he was the driving power behind bringing Peter Overton into the seat because the anchor of the Sydney 6pm Information. He noticed properly into the longer term when others did not.
"He understood the integrity and authenticity that Peter would deliver to 9 Information and set it aside from the remainder. The truth that the 6pm Sydney bulletin has dominated the Information for the previous 12 years is a testomony to the imaginative and prescient that John Westacott delivered to 9.
"He was no saint and had a devilish sense of humour and was a grasp of mischief.
"However he was a journalist's journo and at all times a beneficiant supply of data and perception.
"Westy made 9 a greater place. He was an enormous imaginative and prescient, huge image one who made us all attain for the celebrities and land on them.
"We'll miss him," the assertion ended.
Westacott is survived by his spouse Cecile and two sons.