Obituary: Norman Webster, former Gazette editor, ‘cared a great deal about good journalism’

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Former Montreal Gazette and Globe and Mail editor-in-chief Norman Webster died Friday morning in the palliative care unit at Magog Hospital of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 80 years old.

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Many paid tribute to Webster, calling him one of the best Canadian journalists of the past decades.

“He was such a clear writer, not a smug writer,” said Roy MacGregor, one of Canada’s best sports journalists. “He just wrote with such clarity and honesty. You just had faith in their opinions. You knew they were well thought out and that he didn’t have an agenda. He was the perfect columnist. At one point I said, ‘I think you’re the best columnist in the country.’ And of course, he didn’t want to hear that. Norman stood out among (the other journalists) for his decency. Everything about him was so decent. “

While he’s a huge fan of Webster’s writing, MacGregor prefers to remember his friend as this wonderful guy he spent years playing beer league hockey with in Toronto.

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“He wasn’t snooty on ice or at the typewriter,” MacGregor said. “He was a diligent checker (on the ice). There’s a kind of nudge-nudge, wink-wink, that you don’t do anything on your own. But Norman was the kind of beer league kid who would come back and take his defensive duties seriously, much to the chagrin of people who liked to hang the puck. It’s the latest outlier in beer league hockey: breakthrough. He was a stubborn pit bull, dedicated, he took his tasks very seriously. “

Webster was editor-in-chief of the Gazette from 1989 to 1993 and continued to write a regular column for the newspaper after leaving that position. He was editor-in-chief of the Globe and Mail from 1983 to 1989. He began working at the Globe as a reporter in 1965, reporting from Quebec City, China, Ontario, and England. He is perhaps most famous for his reporting on China during the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as one of the few Western reporters in China at the time.

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“Norman will be remembered for his extraordinary journalism, groundbreaking reporting and sophisticated commentary that made him one of Canada’s best journalists during the 20th century,” said Lucinda Chodan, editor of the Gazette. “But we also met him in the Gazette as a quiet inspirational leader, someone whose high expectations and tireless commitment to smart journalism raised the bar for all of us.”

Retired senator and former Gazette editor-in-chief Joan Fraser also praised Webster.

“He’s one of the best journalists this country has produced and a very, very good man,” said Fraser, who took over as editor of the Gazette after Webster left and was editor of the editorial page when he was in charge. .

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“He was so smart, so modest, so profoundly decent,” Fraser said. “And good journalism was important to him. It really did. I think anyone I talk to will tell you that working with him was a pleasure and a privilege. It was really great, and I’m really sorry to hear that it’s gone.

“He was, apart from everything, an excellent writer. He valued good, clear writing. But he also had a keen sense of observation. I was curious. It was not by chance that he was a foreign correspondent. He was interested in everyone and could always find an interesting story to tell, whatever it was. He had the basic curiosity of a journalist, the desire to learn, the desire to find out. “

Fraser also underscored Webster’s humility.

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“Unlike many people who rise to the top of their field, I don’t think there is a streak of vanity anywhere in that man,” he said.

Geoffrey Stevens met Webster when they were both young reporters in the Ottawa bureau of the Globe and Mail in 1966, and in the 1980s, he was the managing editor of the Globe when Webster was editor-in-chief.

“He had a great eye for people, events and news,” Stevens said. “He was interested in things. He loved going to China and writing about the Chinese people and their lives. He was a great stylist and always had a way of writing that was a bit whimsical, sometimes a bit of humor to lighten it up. He was also a good editor. He was a complete journalist and a very smart and athletic guy. He did about 10 triathlons in his senior year. He played hockey a few times a week when he was editor of the Globe. He just loved it. “

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After leaving his job as editor of the Gazette, Webster led the R. Howard Webster Foundation, which makes grants to nonprofit corporations.

Webster, born in Summerside, PEI, grew up in Eastern Townships and went to Bishop’s University in Lennoxville. He began his journalistic career as a reporter for the Sherbrooke Record.

He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2005, but it was only in the last few years that the disease began to seriously affect him. He was living in North Hatley at the time of his death.

“He was a classic journalist, with an incredibly dry wit and a black humor that he could display whenever he wanted, at any time,” said his son Derek Webster. “He was very clever. But with that said, he was certainly not cynical. He had a real heart. He really cared about average people and you could see that in his reports, whether it was in China or in the eastern municipalities. He had a soft spot for farmers. “

Webster is survived by his wife, Patterson, and their children David, Andrew, Derek, Gillian, and Hilary. There will be a memorial service in North Hatley next summer.

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