A robust waterman and stylish goofy-footer known for his big-wave exploits from the 1950s onwards, Harvey  succumbed to the effects of the melanoma he was  diagnosed with 20 years ago.

Word of his passing, at Toronto Private Hospital, ran quickly through the surfing community, which is expected to turn out in force to his funeral at 10am on Saturday at St Augustine’s Anglican Church, Merewether.

Surfest organiser Warren Smith said Harvey was ‘‘Lord Ted’’.

 ‘‘I called him that, lots of people called him that,’’ Smith said. ‘‘He had the perfect stance, he was the Lord of the Realm, always in control.

‘‘Out at big Nobbys, big Newcastle Point, he always looked fantastic.’’

Smith said Harvey was a big influence on a number of younger surfers, including another stylish Newcastle goofy-footer, Peter McCabe.

McCabe said Harvey took him and a few mates under his wing ‘‘when we were about 13’’.

‘‘I bought my first car off Ted, an EH Holden for $50,’’ McCabe said.

‘‘Everything was about surfing then. He was awesome. He was the man at Nobbys Reef, his style, he had the best bottom turn in the business.’’

Former Newcastle Herald surfing reporter David Knox wrote of Harvey: ‘‘One of the greats. Fearless, stylish, powerful goofy-footer. Intimidating at times but over all staunch champion of surfing in Newcastle, particularly at his beloved east end’’.

Harvey’s younger brother, Eric Harvey, 71, of Warabrook, said the two of them ‘‘grew up in the water’’.

‘‘Our father and his brothers were in the surf [life saving] clubs and we only lived three blocks from the water in Newcomen Street.’’

As Herald editor Chad Watson wrote in 2003, Harvey came through the surf-lifesaving system and competed at Torquay in 1956 as part of the Melbourne Olympics.

Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku was an official and Harvey met American big-wave chargers like Greg Noll, whose 10-foot boards were much shorter than the 16-footers the Aussies had been riding. It was the start of a revolution.

But there was no money in surfing back then and so Eric Harvey said his brother worked as a trades assistant for the NSW Electricity Commission (as the power station operator was known ).

He had no children but was married, briefly, at the age of 37, to Aina Ranke, who generated a euthanasia controversy in 2013 when she ended her own life after a battle with a degenerative neuromuscular condition.

Harvey said his brother had lived at Mayfield in recent years and had been an enthusiastic letter writer to the Herald.

‘‘He and a mate had a thing going as to who could get the most letters into the paper,’’ Harvey said.

‘Lord Ted’ spent his final five or so weeks in hospital.

‘‘He got us to pack up his unit and grab all of his surf memorabilia, and while he was still hoping that a miracle drug would come along, he was down to a third of his normal weight when he passed away on Monday night,’’ Harvey said.

Ironically, Harvey was ‘‘worried in his last days that he’d be forgotten, and not be remembered as a legend’’.

‘‘I’ve been going through all of his trophies and his achievements, all the things he won or placed highly in. There’s no chance of him being forgotten.’’