The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Tom McDougall, a Flin Flonner who took his writing skills all the way to Canada's largest print media organization, is remembered as a gentle man with a wonderfully creative touch. McDougall died earlier this year, seven years after retiring from The Canadian Press, whose Halifax bureau he worked at for 25 years. "My own memories of him are of a big, lumbering guy who could take an ordinary run-of-the-mill story and spin it into something special," wrote John Soosaar, a columnist with The Daily News in Halifax. "His curiosity developed at an early age in Flin Flon, a mining town north of the 54th parallel, where Tom, whose nickname was Ghoti (the name means "fish" in another language, a tribute to his swimming skills), and his four lifelong friends fished, hunted and learned to love the outdoors." McDougall graduated from Hapnot Collegiate in 1959 before attending Toronto's Ryerson University, a breeding ground for many of Canada's top journalists. Early in his career, he traveled to Dubuque, Iowa to sharpen his skills before accepting a job in Truro, Nova Scotia with the Truro Daily News. In 1971, The Canadian Press hired McDougall to work at its Halifax bureau. There he remained for the next 25 years, earning the respect of his readers and media counterparts with a straightforward style that didn't lack a human touch. McDougall was a jack of all trades in the world of journalism, covering politics, entertainment and major news events such as the sinking of the Ocean Ranger oil rig off the coast of Newfoundland in 1982. Even after his retirement in 1996, the curious-as-a-cat McDougall couldn't put his keyboard down, and began writing articles on a freelance basis. His love for reporting stayed with him until the end. Part of his final day was spent investigating an abandoned mine in Halifax as part of a potential feature story. Tom McDougall died on May 4, 2003 at the age of 61.
