The untimely death at just 45 of celebrated Age journalist and editor Graham Perkin in 1975 shocked the journalism community, not only in Melbourne, but internationally. In the nine years that he edited the paper, he turned the Age into an interventionist and campaigning newspaper. His success led the Age to be recognised as one of the ten great newspapers of the world and for Perkin as perhaps the most distinguished Australian editor of his time. In the aftermath of Perkin's death, hundreds of colleagues and journalists sent condolence letters to the Perkin family and local and international newspapers were flooded with tributes. Through an analysis of these tributes, whilst drawing on key theorists including Joy Damousi and Barbara Zelizer, this paper examines the nostalgia manifest in journalists' memorialising of Perkin. It argues the grief that many journalists felt over his untimely passing constructed a collective memory and history of Perkin which sees his time as not only the defining period of their professional lives, but also of 20^th century Australian newspaper journalism. Before historians can begin to create more critical accounts of the Perkin editorship, we need to unpick the nostalgia which underpins this period.