News of the death of Ottawa freelance writer and journalism professor Mark Anderson was greeted with an outpouring of sadness and dismay late last week. J-Source reported yesterday that Anderson died of complications related to throat cancer on October 16th at the age of 51.
Response on social media came, in large part, from Anderson’s former and current students at Ottawa’s Algonquin College. The Edmonton Journal’s Stuart Thomson wrote this poignant piece in remembrance of his former teacher on Medium on Friday.
In addition to being a valued teacher and mentor to many, Anderson was also a talented freelance writer specializing in outdoors and business writing. He was nominated for numerous National Magazine Awards during his more than 25 years in journalism.
Patrick Walsh, Editor-in-Chief of Outdoor Canada,tweeted a farewell to Anderson, his “friend, colleague and star writer.”
“Mark was one of those writers who editors love,” Walsh told Story Board via email yesterday.
“Not only did he come up with great story pitches and win the occasional award for the magazine, he was also a pleasure to edit. Actually, ‘edit’ is too strong of a word. A ‘light dusting’ was all Mark’s work ever needed. And as a bonus, he was an avid angler, and an excellent one at that—he was named several times to represent Canada at international fly-fishing tournaments.”
Above all, said Walsh, Anderson was “simply an all-round nice guy, and a pleasure to work with.”
“He brought so much to our magazine. He will be sorely missed.”
