BILL Craven, author of The Weekly Times column Peter's Parish for 31 years, has passed away after a long illness.
Mr Craven, who started as The Weekly Times' dairy reporter in 1963, died last Wednesday.
He wrote his last column for the paper on January 6, in which he said his cancer had "got out of hand".
Mr Craven had a varied career, originally studying agriculture and working on farms before moving to journalism in the ABC's rural department in 1960.
He joined The Weekly Times for three years but had a religious calling and became a Methodist minister.
"I had grown up in the church and it had always been a passion. So I made a big decision and I was glad I did," he said when he retired in January.
In 1976 he bought a dairy farm at Korumburra in Gippsland and became minister at the local Anglican church.
But it was Mr Craven's unique combination of journalism, an agricultural background and religion that was the catalyst to create Peter's Parish.
In 1978 he was approached by the then-editor of The Weekly Times to write the column, "a fictious life of a country parson".
"A lot of my inspiration came from my own personal life and a lot from my imagination and reading," Mr Craven said.
"I have a pretty good imagination."
In his last column in January he paid tribute to his faithful readers, many of whom had become friends.
Mr Craven is survived by his wife, Bev, three children and five grandchildren.
His funeral was held in Drysdale on Monday.
