Indian Journalism Review records with regret the passing of Darryl D’Monte, former resident of The Indian Express and The Times of India in Bombay. He was 75.
Both papers carried obituaries of D’Monte, an environmental crusader who, even as Editor, travelled to and from Bandra by local train because cars polluted the air.
ToI graciously acknowledged D’Monte’s role in the transformation of the paper from the “Old Lady of Boribunder” to a spiffy young “babe” when he joined it at the time of its sesquicentenary, in 1988.
“He helped change it from a stuffy institution to a liberal, non-statist paper with an ear to the ground. It was a complete change from the old echo chamber journalism, where editors lived in ivory towers,” recounted the satirist Bachi J. Karkaria.
Darryl D’Monte was the nephew of Frank Moraes, the first Indian Editor of The Times of India and later the Editor-in-Chief of The Indian Express.
In Mumbai Mirror, the public relations giant Roger Pereira, four years older than D’Monte, recounted the family’s imprint on the city.
“Darryl’s grandfather had donated land for the Bandra gymkhana, and we used to joke that the grandfather owned half of Bandra and it was probably true,” Pereira said.
On Twitter, ex-colleagues and friends remembered a colleague and mentor.
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Also read: Darryl ‘D’Monte on Inder Malhotra who took on Samir Jain
IJR 
Saddened to hear that Darryl D’Monte is no more. I had met him twice during my brief stint at Bombay during early ’80s, courtesy Raju Bharatan of TOI and Suresh Saryia (then PR Manager of Bank of India). And in a candid chat that I recall, he had attributed his success in the media to his uncle, the late Frank Moraes…. I trust that his last moments were without any pain….