PETALING JAYA, July 28 — Taciturn and unassuming Khoo Kay Peng, a doyen of the print media who spent more than 30 years as a columnist and production editor, died on Tuesday.

A bachelor till the very end, the 72-year-old continued walking the editorial floors till his final days as deputy associate editor of Malaysian Reserve.

All who knew him said he was a man of few words, meticulous and passionate about his job, with some surmising that if he married he would be a bigamist — wedded to job and wife.

"Kay Peng was a maestro at what he did, a man of few words who let his skills do the talking,” said Malaysian Reserve editorial adviser P.C. Shivadas, who knew him for close on five decades. 

Shivadas, who worked with Kay Peng in the then Straits Times in the late 1960s, described his long-time colleague as one who took his job seriously and would not compromise on the unwritten rules on newspaper design and layout.

Kay Peng, who was Asia correspondent for the UK-based World Sport, had an avid following among Straits Times readers for his weekly column Soccer Chat with Khoo Kay Peng.

But he did not stay too long with the paper.

Fledgling rival The Star was set up in Penang by businessman K. S. Choong in late 1971 and naturally it made a beeline for the coterie of Penangites who drove the sub-editors’ pool in the Straits Times. 

Described as a coup of sorts, colleague Gobind Rudra said Choong enticed several of the journalists in Straits Times to join The Star, with Kay Peng heading the list.

"His skills were recognised even then despite being a man of few words to those who did not know him,” added Rudra.

"Kay Peng was a pioneer staff of The Star, and was the chief sub-editor of the paper when it started at the Weld Quay office in Penang,” recalled Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai, current Group managing director and CEO of The Star.

"He helped produce the first copy of The Star,” he revealed.

"A true newspaper man. He was a quiet person but a real professional,” summed up Wong.

Kay Peng may not have authored any book for aspiring journalists to improve their skills, but his mentoring spoke volumes for the man’s knowledge which was a treasure trove.

After more than three decades in the print media, many of those whom Kay Peng mentored are key personnel in the English newspapers.

"The industry has lost one of its revered unassuming personalities,” former journalist turned corporate figure Datuk Seri Kalimullah Hassan said.

"He was with The Star when we at New Straits Times (NST) decided to lure him back to revamp the paper’s identity and come up with a new look.

"He hardly said anything but was one to get the job done. He was also someone a friend could count on to deliver the final product without much fanfare,” declared Kalimullah.

In the 1990s, Kay Peng was with the NST where he served as production editor and in-house trainer.

"Kay Peng led the NST production team in being the first print house in the country to shift from traditional hotplate printing to desktop publishing,” former colleague Sheila Natarajan Rahman said.

"Together with IT experts he mastered the use of Quark Express, Macintosh publishing as tools of our trade,” she said.

While Kay Peng may be renowned for his ability at layout, design, headlines and captions, only those close to him knew of his yen for music, adept at guitar and ukulele.

He was an avid bowler, footballer and athlete in his youth, excelling at the latter while at Penang Free School.

"We used to bowl almost daily, sometimes late into the night,” colleague and fellow journalist Tony Francis said.

Kay Peng was found dead on Tuesday in his brother Kay Soon’s home in Subang Jaya.

According to Kay Soon, who returned home from a trip to Ipoh on Tuesday, he was surprised to find his brother’s car parked outside the house.

He had expected his brother to be at work.

The wake for Kay Peng is being held at the Nirvana Memorial Centre off Jalan Kuchai Lama and the funeral rites are scheduled for tomorrow at 11am.