One of Australia’s most respected journalists, the Age’s Michael Gordon, has died suddenly aged 62.

Regarded as a giant of Australian journalism, and one of his paper’s most beloved writers for a generation, Gordon died after suffering an apparent heart attack during an ocean swim at Cowes, Phillip Island, on Saturday morning.

A fit and regular swimmer, he was pulled from the water shortly before 10.30am, and despite the efforts of paramedics, who worked on him for an hour, he could not be revived.

Gordon leaves behind a body of work almost unparalleled in Australian print journalism.

His reporting on federal politics – he was regarded as scrupulously impartial by both sides of the aisle – indigenous affairs, refugees and social justice championed the disadvantage and the oppressed, and changed public policy.

He won the Walkley award for most outstanding contribution to journalism – one of the most prestigious honours in Australian media – in 2017, and a Walkley award for coverage of indigenous affairs in 2003.

The Walkley Foundation’s citation for Gordon’s award last year read: “The overwhelming impression Gordon left — with both his byline and his presence — was of decency, integrity, fairness and balance. Even when he was working at the epicentre of influence, he held himself outside the media pack. And his compassion shone through as he fought to give voice to the underdogs.”

Guardian Australia political editor Katharine Murphy said at the time: “Mick has used his professional platform to speak up for people with great care, and empathy, and moral clarity … People know he is there to hear them. His lack of self-aggrandisement and his desire to find the truth makes him a trusted custodian of the voices and histories of the country, and his talent makes the storytelling indelible.”

Gordon also won the Graham Perkin award for Australia’s most outstanding journalist in 2005. But he himself saw it in simpler terms: “Often enough, my purpose seemed to be giving voice to those who didn’t have one.”

Gordon began his newspaper career – “the family business” as he often described it – as a 17-year-old cadet at the Age. HIs father, Harry, who would become Australia’s official Olympic historian, was then the editor of the Sun, so Michael joined the rival paper.

He left the Age at times during his career, to start a short-lived surfing magazine (along with the Hawthorn Football Club, his great passion outside of journalism), to work for the Melbourne Herald as New York correspondent in the 1980s, and as the Australian’s political editor in the 1990s.

But it was at the Age where he spent 37 years, and where his name was best known and remembered.

“Micky was the most beautiful person you could hope to meet,” the Age’s editor, Alex Lavelle, told the newspaper on Saturday.

“A great friend and colleague, he was genuine, warm, kind and an incredibly talented journalist. He deserved all the accolades that came his way.”

Malcolm Turnbull was among those paying tribute. “Farewell Michael Gordon,” said the prime minister. “One of the most wise and calm of journalists. A good friend and great mentor to so many. He left us far too soon. Love and sympathy to Robyn and his family at this tough time.”

Paul Keating, about whom Gordon wrote a biography, also described him as a journalist of the highest calibre. “Michael’s journalism is characterised by perhaps journalism’s most fundamental tenets: to dispassionately assemble facts, to present them in a digestible and intelligent way, to give the reader the credit of understanding their import and to allow the reader the opportunity to come to a conclusion – without the story needing artificial colouring.”

Gordon told the story that, when he was beginning his career, he was often asked if he was “Harry’s son”. As his own standing in the profession grew, people began to ask Harry if he was Michael’s father. “That made the old man pretty happy.”

Michael Gordon was 62. He is survived by wife Robyn, children Scott and Sarah, and grandson Harry.