Graham Barrell, who has died at 59 after a year-long illness, complemented a career in broadcast transmission management with 20 years of community work in Wymondham.

Graham Barrell, who has died at 59 after a year-long illness, complemented a career in broadcast transmission management with 20 years of community work in Wymondham.

Born in Langham, Essex, in 1946, he was educated at Gilberd County Technical School, Colchester and joined the BBC as a technical assistant.

In a varied BBC career he worked in the engineering information department, often dealing with the public, and then in the transmitter site acquisition section.

He was the BBC's transmitter manager in the east for about 10 years, based at Tacolneston but also responsible for the other transmitters in the region, including Orford Ness.

In all his work he was renowned for professional thoroughness, kindness and consideration for others.

Like many professional transmitter engineers he was also active in amateur radio - a licensed 'radio ham'.

His flair for organisation proved invaluable in his Royal Television Society activities in East Anglia, as secretary but especially as event organiser of the RTS East Anglia Awards. He was a key member of the small team that transformed those events from dinner-dances with a single award into celebrated glittering occasions with many categories.

His community activities in Wymondham included many years of service at Wymondham Abbey, where he became PCC secretary, then lay chairman, and a churchwarden.

On early retirement, he extended his community role, becoming an early member of Wymondham Music Festival Committee.

He helped set up Wymondham Development Partnership in 1999, serving as vice-chairman for five years and running its Town Publicity Group.

He is survived by his widow Valerie, and a son and two daughters from his first marriage.

His funeral will take place in Wymondham Abbey at 11am on January 16.