Sadness in losing long-time friend and colleague Adrian Ewins has prevented me from blogging sooner about his death on Sept. 22. The feelings were just a little too raw. The Producer has received numerous messages of condolence since his passing, from his friends, colleagues and news sources. Thank you to those who offered those thoughts. A memorial for Adrian was held in Saskatoon Sept. 30. The place was packed with his friends and relatives, and it was a celebration of his life more than a tearful acknowledgement of his death. That seemed fitting.
The newsroom seems a different place without Adrian. He was the longest serving member of the Saskatoon-based editorial team and I had the pleasure of working with him as news editor and managing editor and editor over about 18 years. Adrian was an expert in coverage of various issues surrounding the grain industry. He was an editor’s ideal employee – curious, knowledgeable, talented, patient, polite, ethical… the list is lengthy.
Though I no longer write a regular column for the Producer, I was offered the great privilege of writing a farewell for Adrian. For those who did not read it in the newspaper proper, here it is.
GOODBYE TO ADRIAN, FRIEND AND WRITER
Adrian could write. Write well. Write quickly. Clearly, succinctly, professionally. News was his medium but his skills could have taken him anywhere. That it brought him to the Producer, where he stayed for more than 30 years, is an advantage this newspaper has, and will always have, over any other.
We lost Adrian on Sept. 22, just as autumn began. Cancer, a foe that he had battled for 23 years, took him from us.
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His wry verbal comments on the issues and people he wrote about caused frequent laughter in the newsroom. It helped all of us keep things in perspective and provided gentle camaraderie in a place that has its unique stresses.
But for all his witticisms, Adrian was a professional, a journalist to whom the highest compliment was that a story was fair and accurate. Such compliments were many.
The Producer gave wind to his sails in the early part of his career here. Later it was the anchor that held him steady when the ravages of cancer made other aspects of his life so precarious.
We, his colleagues, watched his fight. We celebrated remissions and in the past year we learned the steely strength of Adrian’s will and dedication.
Adrian would laugh at that, and tell us not to be melodramatic. He’d have made a joke about allowing a column to become maudlin.
But he’d have to agree — he must know — the fairness and accuracy of this: he was part of the soul of this place, this newspaper, and we will miss him every day.
Raymond Chandler wrote that “to say goodbye is to die a little.”
We have.
