Howard Campbell, Sunday Gleaner Writer

IF READERS of his Gleaner column believed Hartley Neita lived in a time capsule, then it is likely they understood his fascination with nostalgia.

It took him back to a time when Jamaica was a civilised society.

For 15 years, Neita reflected on everything from his youth in Four Paths, Clarendon, to his mother's cooking and his years at Jamaica College. They were some of the yarns that made his weekly Historical Highlights column a popular read.

Hartley Neita, 78, fell ill Friday morning at the St Andrew home of his son, Gary. He was pronounced dead at the Andrews Memorial Hospital. No cause of death has been given by his family.

"He was an exemplary person. Hartley was my role model from way back," said his younger brother, Lance Neita.

Lance said he last spoke to his brother two weeks ago and he was excited about his latest project - a book on the construction of the United States Air and Naval base at Fort Simmonds (now Vernamfield) in his native Clarendon.

Had a busy year

It had been a busy year for Neita, the chatty history buff who served as press secretary to three Jamaican prime ministers. In June, he launched his latest book, The Search, and had completed work on Donald Sangster - The Forgotten Prime Minister, a biography of Jamaica's second prime minister.

In 2005, another Neita biography, Hugh Shearer - A Voice For The People, was released to critical acclaim. Shearer, Jamaica's third prime minister, died the previous year.

Louis Marriott, who first worked with Neita at the Government Public Relations Office in the late 1950s, described his former colleague as the "complete journalist". He added: "Hartley was a complete gentleman. He couldn't help it; he went to Jamaica College (JC)."

Neita was the eldest of six children born to Granville and Abigail Neita.

Although he grew up in Four Paths, he said he was born in Mount Providence, Clarendon. His father, an educator and his mother, a housewife, were both from St Catherine.

He later attended JC, then a high-brow boarding school whose past students included his future boss and Jamaica premier, Norman Manley. During his time there, he played Sunlight Cup cricket and developed an enduring passion for jazz.

Professionally, Neita found his calling as a press man in government circles. In 1962, he was appointed press secretary to Sir Alexander Bustamante, Jamaica's first prime minister, and for the next eight years held that position with Sangster and Shearer.

Shearer years most exciting

In a 2004 interview with The Gleaner, Neita said the Shearer years (1968-72) were the most exciting. Shearer's conservative policies did not go down well with youth immersed in the Black Power movement.

Those differences came to a head in October 1968, when the Shearer administration barred Walter Rodney, a Guyanese lecturer at the University of the West Indies (UWI), from re-entering the country.

That sparked a day-long protest in Kingston by mainly UWI students that forced Shearer to call in the security forces.

Neita was succeeded as press man at Jamaica House by Marriott and Claude Robinson, but maintained his media ties, putting in stints at the Jamaica Tourist Board and the public-relations firm, Creative Projects.

But, it was his Gleaner columns and books that helped keep Hartley Neita's adrenaline flowing in his last 15 years. The Search, a story about five JC students who went missing during a hike in the Blue Mountains in 1939, was personally satisfying, especially since he launched it at his beloved alma mater.

Last year, Neita, Ken Chaplin and Ken Jones were honoured by the Press Association of Jamaica for over 60 years' service to journalism. On Friday, Jones paid tribute to his longtime friend and former neighbour.

"He had a love for jazz and history; that was something we both shared. Outside of that, what can I say, Hartley was just a great person," he said.

Hartley Neita is survived by five children and six grandchildren.