A SPECIAL man with a treasured gift for making people smile.That is how Derek Peart will be remembered by family and friends.Today those who knew and loved the former Evening Star advertising sales manager are mourning his death.

A SPECIAL man with a treasured gift for making people smile.

That is how Derek Peart will be remembered by family and friends.

Today those who knew and loved the former Evening Star advertising sales manager are mourning his death.

Despite frantic efforts to revive him by his wife Margaret and paramedics the 58-year-old died after a heart attack at his home in Humber Doucy Lane, Ipswich.

Beneath the larger than life veneer, Mr Peart was a man of immense kindness who touched so many lives when they needed it most.

His daughter Lesley today tribute to her father who also left behind a son, Tony, and three grandchildren.

"He was very proud of his family and his family were very proud of him," she said. "I suppose I will remember him as a jolly character who always had a smile.

"He was my rock. I could always rely on him. He meant the world to me."

Mr Peart started with the Star as a sales rep working on retail accounts in Ipswich in the early 1980s before being promoted to sales manager for the county areas in Suffolk and north Essex. He left the company due to ill health in the mid 1990s.

Next to his family his burning passion was for his beloved Ipswich Town Football Club. For decades Mr Peart worked at the ground on match days, latterly in the dressing room areas looking after the needs of both teams and the officials.

"It was like a second family to him," said Lesley. "He was proud to be an Ipswich supporter and to work for the club. He was a very well-known face around the ground."

Mr Peart, who had a history of heart trouble, was working on his home with his friend Trevor Ford when he felt pains in his chest on Monday morning.

The pair went inside where Mr Peart called out to his wife who is a trained nurse.

"Mum held him," said Lesley. "She tried to revive him and got him to come round once. The ambulance crew was there within minutes. They tried for about 45 minutes but nothing could be done. They took him to hospital but mum knew he was gone."

Mr Peart's funeral will be held at Ipswich Crematoriam West Chapel next Friday at 11am with a celebration of his life to be held at The Garland in Rushmere St Andrew after the service.