• OBITUARY BRIAN COTTEE As reported last week, former Commercial
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Motor editor Brian Cottee has died, at the age of 63. Cottee was editor from 1967 to 1976, when he joined what was the National Freight Corporation as head of communication services; a position he held until 1986 when he took early retirement and moved to Spain.
His career in journalism began in 1948 when he joined the staff of Motor which, like CM, was part of Temple Press. He transferred to Commercial Motor in 1961 as assistant editor. In his six years in this position, and the following nine as editor, he played a major part in establishing and maintaining high standards of journalism during a period of exciting development within the industry.
Cottee brought to commercial vehicle journalism a high level of professionalism, honesty and dependability; of dedication, and of commitment.
Those qualities proved invaluable when, as head of communication at NFC, Brian worked behind the scenes establishing links between the directors and the other 30,000 staff in the 1982 employee buyout of the .250m organisation.
NFC Chairman Sir Peter Thompson, in his book Sharing The Success, described Brian Cottee as "a man of great ability, a marvellous simplifier who could distill a complex concept into simple words that everyone could understand."
A technical journalist could wish for no finer epitaph.