This is the obituary prepared by Ruth Hessey which has been approved by his family and friends. Tough to describe such a complex character.
Dennis O’Rourke, who died last week at the age of 67, was a Big Game Hunter. He was after truth rather than tusks or antlers, but he shot big contentious stories with a passion and contempt for danger that set him apart from the merely curious storyteller. Wading up the Sepik River, or looking for a bar in Kabul, he was never simply a bystander.