MISSING . . .
THE DAILY MAIL offers the opportunity to re-establish contact with long-lost relatives and friends. Each week, MONICA PORTER features the story of someone trying to find a missing loved one and a tale of people reunited. Produced in conjunction with the voluntary tracing service Searching For A Memory,ory, run by Gill Whitley.
RETIRED cab driver Martin Whiting, 74, is looking for his old friend Colin Keenan. ‘He emigrated to New York in 1971, when he was about 22. We corresponded until 1976, but then his letters stopped abruptly. At some point, I think he got a football (or soccer, as it’s called there) scholarship to a college.
‘I met him when I was an apprentice in the newspaper industry in the mid-1960s and living in north London. In 1968, we were both fire protection engineers with Mather and Platt, installing sprinkler systems. We also worked at Dungeness power station. ‘We went on holidays, and our times together mostly involved girls, alcohol and parties. Once in Newquay harbour, our car broke down in the sand, and the girls we were with — one of them, Gillian Duxbury, later became a successful model — tried to push us out, but to no avail. ‘Colin came from an Irish family, but I believe he had relatives in Barking, London as well as in New York.
‘I know it’s a long shot, but I hope you can help, as I’d love to find my friend before it’s too late. I’ve been married for 48 years and live in Bishop’s Stortford in Hertfordshire.’