Mandeville, Manchester — On his own initiative, in the 1990s, Paul Byfield sent a videotape of crash on Spur Tree Hill, to the then fledgling CVM Television newsroom, promising that he had “everything.”

He was true to his word.

That was the start of his career with CVM as a news videographer, spanning two decades during which he developed a reputation for transforming rural reporting.

Byfield, 54, lost his battle with colon cancer last month. He was laid to rest Saturday at the Oaklawn Memorial Gardens in Dunsinane, close to Hatfield in Manchester.

Before that, people from all walks of life including the business and political leadership in central Jamaica were part of an overspill crowd attending a thanksgiving service at the First United Pentecostal Church in Mandeville.

Reflecting on Byfield’s work, former supervisor at CVM, Milton Walker, described him as the best.

“I think it’s fair to say that he is my best hire to date. He never missed anything. He could spot a story anywhere and he would give you all (the) different angles,” Walker said.

As a rural correspondent Byfield covered a wide area including Manchester, St Elizabeth, South Trelawny and North Clarendon.

His speed, interest in what was happening around him, passion for the job and objective approach to news were traits that enabled him to thrive, Walker said.

To deliver “prolific” outputs, Byfield frequently travelled at high speed and put himself in danger to get an exceptional story, he added.

“There was (an) incident, which was absolutely frightening, and this was the siege at the Spalding Police Station where I think some young men were injured and I think one may have been killed. The residents were angry… I think they were starting to stone the station and a police officer pushed his firearm through the window and opened fire, I think he meant to shoot in the air. [A] bullet grazed Byfield. When we looked at the tape… I actually could see the barrel of the gun pointing at Byfield. Unto this day I think it’s God who saved Byfield. He was literally in the line of fire,” he said.

Walker said that Byfield’s mantra was to always use journalism to “right wrongs that he saw”. The videographer had a belief that the issues and events in rural Jamaica must be similarly highlighted as the news from the urban areas, Walker said.

“I don’t think we will ever see another Paul Byfield. He is that one of a kind, once in a generation characters that we must cherish. Most of all to carry his work through, which is for us journalist to continue to do good journalism, also to do more from rural Jamaica, which was his passion. He always said ‘unuh always a put the whole heap a Kingston news inna the news but mi here fi the country people dem and country people matter,” he said.

St Elizabeth businessman Jason Henzell attested to the impact that Byfield made in rural communities.

“I used to be more low-key before Byfield came into my life. Everywhere I go people will be like ‘bwoy a love what you doing in Treasure Beach enuh,” he said.

Henzell said that Byfield would challenge him to talk about what is happening as the tourism season approaches and had ideas about how he could develop his community tourism business on the south coast.

He said that it was Byfield who suggested the introduction of tug-of-war as a side feature at night football matches in Treasure Beach and it became very popular.

“I am gonna miss him. All of Treasure Beach is gonna miss him. So many little communities across these parishes, particularly Manchester and St Elizabeth, their stories would not have been told, their causes could not have come to light. A lot of their dreams and aspirations would not have been fulfilled without Byfield taking an interest in them…,” said Henzell.

Managing Editor at CVM Irvin Forbes and Walker, shared the view that Byfield played a major role in the development of the organisation.

“Paul Byfield helped (to) build CVM Television. Paul Byfield was a big part of why CVM has come on the map. There are times we owed him a little more,” Forbes said.

Presiding pastor Dale Fisher said Byfield had left “a big shoe to be filled” by those to follow.