Don Turpin

An extremely respected and an extremely well liked sports reporter died last Friday.
Best known for his exceptional soccer coverage during a 50-year career, Don Turpin was 81. He has been sick for several years but continued to report on a regular basis for the Southern Gazette and radio station CHCM in Marystown.He was a member of the Newfoundland and Labrador Soccer Hall of Fame.
“A truly great contributor to soccer at all levels, Don Turpin was considered a good friend by thousands of members of the soccer community,” said provincial soccer president Doug Redmond of St. John’s. “Devoted, knowledgeable, co-operative, accurate and respected are good words to associate with Don Turpin’s reporting career. He will certainly be missed and remembered by our soccer community.”
A native of St. Lawrence, he will be buried there Monday.

Don Turpin was inducted into the Newfoundland and Labrador Soccer Hall of Fame in 2002. His bio is:
During the past 54 years Don Turpin has become a soccer legend, especially within Burin Peninsula soccer. The St. Lawrence native has provided spirited coverage of all aspects of soccer as a journalist and a broadcaster. Because of his great love of the game and his amazing fulfillment of his responsibilities, soccer in general and on the Burin Peninsula in particular, is much better today. He is simply an outstanding soccer personality with a reputation for accuracy, fairness and great expertise.
His short soccer-playing career ended in 1950 because of a leg injury but that was also the time when his inspirational soccer support career started and it has consistently continued for the betterment of soccer and thousands of those involved with it. On a year-to-year basis Don Turpin has been a major factor in soccer improvement and expansion. He has devoted many hours and a great deal of effort to making players and teams better known and to affording them the credit which they deserve.
Don Turpin’s objective and fair reaction and comments to a variety of situations have earned him great respect as an unbiased and entertaining reporter. He has reported, in newspaper and on radio, the facts as they are while providing an excellent opportunity for an extremely large number of soccer people to present their opinions and sentiments.
In addition to his expertise as a reporter, Don Turpin has filled a very large number of executive positions on soccer organizations and his work within the PR aspect of the sport has set a high level of success. While soccer is and has been his great love, he has contributed in many ways to the betterment of the extended community in which he lives and has provided impressive newspaper and radio coverage to many, many worthwhile events and happenings, especially on the Burin Peninsula.
He is a member of the Burin Peninsula Soccer Hall of Fame and the St. Lawrence Soccer Hall of Fame.