GVIC Communications Inc.? The staff knew little or nothing about the Vancouver-based company that bought the Western Producer from Saskatchewan Wheat Pool in January 2001.
The face we came to put on our new owner was that of John Collison, one of the firm’s major shareholders and top executives who got to know the Producer during frequent visits over the last year and a half.
Collison proved to be a tall drink of water with a beard, cookie duster moustache and a fringe of white hair encircling a shiny scalp. At his first meeting with the staff, he admitted to a limited knowledge of agriculture. Then he set about learning more about it and the Western Producer’s role within it.
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Collison spent several days each month at our head office in Saskatoon and last year attended Canadian Western Agribition, where he made a point of meeting many of the movers and shakers in western Canadian agriculture.
At Producer management and staff meetings, Collison tended to listen more than he talked, a trait likely shared by a large percentage of successful corporate types.
And when he did talk, the 56-year-old executive had more than 25 years of experience in printing, publishing and public relations behind his words.
When his Producer duties were done for the month or the moment, Collison would fly home to Vancouver, one time leaving the same way he arrived – piloting his de Havilland Beaver, the aircraft he invariably spoke of with animation, affection and pride.
On Aug. 28, Collison was killed in that plane, along with his friend Jane Ferguson and Ferguson’s niece, Kirsten Ferguson. The Beaver went down in a rugged canyon near Penticton, when Collison and his passengers were en route to Calgary.
Water bombers discovered the wreckage after extinguishing the fire started by the crash.
It’s hard to qualify emotions around here since hearing the news of Collison’s passing. The business relationship was such that some of us still didn’t know whether to call him John or Mr. Collison when encountering him at the office.
He wasn’t a man many Producer staffers knew well, yet we know he followed through on his promises and held this newspaper in high regard.
We knew John Collison long enough to develop a routine, long enough to establish a personal office for him here at the Producer. And long enough to realize we have lost an owner, a boss and an adviser worthy of respect.
