The Shelburne Coast Guard has lost a former editor and a friend.
Leonard Pace passed away in Roseway Hospital on Saturday, March 21 with wife, Judy Conrad and step-daughter Andrea Saulnier, by his side.
Leonard came to this newspaper first in 1986, a continuation of a journalism career that had taken him from Acadia University to St. John’s. Halifax and Yarmouth.
Except for a hiatus freelancing from 1989-92, he helmed The Coast Guard until 2004.
In a 2002 interview Leonard said two things sustained him in his work. One was the natural world. His love of the Nova Scotia woods went back to his childhood. He was an avid canoeist, a lover of the woodland, rivers, and beaches of Nova Scotia. He was an avid follower of the Nova Scotia Guides Association and supported the annual competition weekend in Hibernia, Queens County.
The second was the fishery. Pace was a champion of the fisheries industry, and often wrote compelling editorials in defence of the independent fishermen in the region.
He began his professional career in 1968 as a reporter for the Daily News in St. John’s, Newfoundland, after editing the student newspaper, the Athenaeum, at Acadia University.
Then in 1969 he went to the Chronicle-Herald, where he covered the Law Amendments Committee in the provincial legislature and specialized on his own account in fisheries reporting.
In 1974, he moved to Yarmouth and took up the position of editor of Atlantic Canada’s leading fisheries publication, The Sou’wester, with Fundy Group Publications.
In 1976 he went out on his own, writing on contract for the federal Department of Fisheries, becoming a house husband, building his own house (his father was a carpenter), and engaging in a number of freelance enterprises.
In 1985, he went to the College of Geographic Sciences in Lawrencetown, winning the Graphics Prize and graduating with a diploma in Computer Graphics programming before rejoining Fundy Group in 1986 as editor of The Coast Guard.
He was a dedicated and talented editor, the third longest serving in the paper’s history.
Many in the community felt Leonard left an indelible mark on his community, helping to chronicle some of the most important events in the area’s history along the way.
In 1997, he was proud to be in the editor’s chair during the newspaper’s centennial.
Shelburne Municipal Councillor Cathy Holmes served under Leonard’s tutelage as a reporter for more than a decade and she described him a natural teacher who demanded the best in everything she did.
“He would not accept a story that was not clearly written. Nothing murky or vague would get past him as editor. He wanted to be sure I knew exactly what I was talking about, so that the reader would know and he wanted to be sure my information was backed by sources,” she said. “Leonard was a wonderful mentor and a demanding task master.”
It was not all work though.
“Every once in a while, on a sunny late February day, Leonard would poke his head in my office door and say ‘What have you got on this afternoon?’ If it wasn’t a lot of work, we’d take the afternoon off and go skiing – he loved to ski on Indian Fields, Half Moon Plains, into Clam or Horseshoe Lake. We had a lot of great skis.”
There will be no funeral service by Leonard’s request. On-line condolences may be sent to: [email protected] or people may sign the guest book at: www.huskilson.net
The Shelburne Coast Guard has lost a former editor and a friend.
Leonard Pace passed away in Roseway Hospital on Saturday, March 21 with wife, Judy Conrad and step-daughter Andrea Saulnier, by his side.
Leonard came to this newspaper first in 1986, a continuation of a journalism career that had taken him from Acadia University to St. John’s. Halifax and Yarmouth.
Except for a hiatus freelancing from 1989-92, he helmed The Coast Guard until 2004.
In a 2002 interview Leonard said two things sustained him in his work. One was the natural world. His love of the Nova Scotia woods went back to his childhood. He was an avid canoeist, a lover of the woodland, rivers, and beaches of Nova Scotia. He was an avid follower of the Nova Scotia Guides Association and supported the annual competition weekend in Hibernia, Queens County.
The second was the fishery. Pace was a champion of the fisheries industry, and often wrote compelling editorials in defence of the independent fishermen in the region.
He began his professional career in 1968 as a reporter for the Daily News in St. John’s, Newfoundland, after editing the student newspaper, the Athenaeum, at Acadia University.
Then in 1969 he went to the Chronicle-Herald, where he covered the Law Amendments Committee in the provincial legislature and specialized on his own account in fisheries reporting.
In 1974, he moved to Yarmouth and took up the position of editor of Atlantic Canada’s leading fisheries publication, The Sou’wester, with Fundy Group Publications.
In 1976 he went out on his own, writing on contract for the federal Department of Fisheries, becoming a house husband, building his own house (his father was a carpenter), and engaging in a number of freelance enterprises.
In 1985, he went to the College of Geographic Sciences in Lawrencetown, winning the Graphics Prize and graduating with a diploma in Computer Graphics programming before rejoining Fundy Group in 1986 as editor of The Coast Guard.
He was a dedicated and talented editor, the third longest serving in the paper’s history.
Many in the community felt Leonard left an indelible mark on his community, helping to chronicle some of the most important events in the area’s history along the way.
In 1997, he was proud to be in the editor’s chair during the newspaper’s centennial.
Shelburne Municipal Councillor Cathy Holmes served under Leonard’s tutelage as a reporter for more than a decade and she described him a natural teacher who demanded the best in everything she did.
“He would not accept a story that was not clearly written. Nothing murky or vague would get past him as editor. He wanted to be sure I knew exactly what I was talking about, so that the reader would know and he wanted to be sure my information was backed by sources,” she said. “Leonard was a wonderful mentor and a demanding task master.”
It was not all work though.
“Every once in a while, on a sunny late February day, Leonard would poke his head in my office door and say ‘What have you got on this afternoon?’ If it wasn’t a lot of work, we’d take the afternoon off and go skiing – he loved to ski on Indian Fields, Half Moon Plains, into Clam or Horseshoe Lake. We had a lot of great skis.”
There will be no funeral service by Leonard’s request. On-line condolences may be sent to: [email protected] or people may sign the guest book at: www.huskilson.net
