Respected Jamaican advertising kingpin Gurney Beckford, a stalwart in his late 70s, passed away on Thursday (January 14), Our Today understands.

Beckford was a long-serving CEO and Chairman of Dunlop Corbin Communications and had a reputation for being one of Jamaica’s leading advertising operators.

Then newlyweds, Mavis and Gurney Beckford also founded the popular Mall Pharmacy in Kingston and Portmore Mall Pharmacy in St Catherine, with daughter Andrea Wray assuming the reigns of the family business in 1995.

Most recently, Beckford served as a director of the Jamaica Cancer Society. 

He is survived by his wife, children and grandchildren.