Saturday, October 7, 2023
My friendship with Ted goes back to the late 1960s when he was about 15. We were all hanging out at the Horsefield (Conrose) ball diamond in a group that included Bob Smith, Jacques Desrosier and Scott Milsom. Our love of music united the group. Our first publishing venture together came when Ted assumed the role of editor with the QEH Times and I wrote about music for the paper at Ted’s request. We were a little controversial because I had switched to the rival St. Pat’s HS at the time. Neither of us cared what the other students thought.
Ted’s stewardship and first-class overhaul of that high school paper were a precursor to his career. We were roommates in Toronto as Ted began his Journalism degree at Ryerson and I studied at U of T. During that year Ted became fully involved in newspapers, writing for the Ryerson paper and publishing his first articles in the Globe and Mail. I recall Ted’s first piece in The Globe was an interview with Xaviera Hollander otherwise known as the Happy Hooker. He was just 19. Ted would go on to work at the Toronto Star, the Chronicle Herald and as a late-night newsreader with a St. John’s TV station.
Ted seemed fearless, headstrong, and not shy about pushing forward. His first trip abroad had him working as a barman in a London pub, then on to Moscow where the airline lost his luggage and doubling back to take a train through East Germany to Berlin. A little later he survived a mugging in San Francisco, all of this before he was 21.
The first issue of Halifax Magazine was published in December 1978. We put it together in Ted’s bedroom at the Sutcliffe family home on Cambridge St. Ted was Publisher and Editor and I was the volunteer Associate Editor then Ted’s first paid employee. Ted always felt the city needed a “proper” magazine. Ted was always ambitious and took his cues from the great city magazines in New York and Los Angeles. The competition for advertising dollars in such a limited market was tough and it is a tribute to Ted’s bullheaded ambition that “Halifax” lasted over 3 years. The magazine, unfortunately, was maybe a decade too soon.
Ted went on to other ventures. The success of his Burnside News opened the door to other opportunities He called me from Paris to ask if I’d be interested in joining him there to launch another magazine. It was an interesting idea but I had my own business and declined. He received his MBA while editing the Virginia Business Observer in Norfolk.
We always kept in touch and Ted would call out of the blue from Virginia or New York just to chat. When he returned from the US, he launched Infomonkey, an online project that was a digital version of a city magazine. His concept was good but the project was underfunded.
Ted’s journalism career differed from most. He was a journalist who didn’t much like to write. Early in his career- probably as far back to QEH- Ted saw himself as an editor and publisher.
Ted’s cognitive decline was heartbreaking. He tried hard to fight the disease by doing mental exercises and as much reading as his illness allowed. We talked at least once a week, sometimes more, and usually met once a month. The last time we spoke was November 13, 2021. I remember it clearly. It was his birthday and Ted was walking up Quinpool Road, the locus of our teenage years, to meet Leslie for a birthday dinner. Ted was having trouble finding his way.
My heart goes out to the Sutcliffe family. I would like to thank Rick and Donna for their care of Ted, David Jones and John Lindsay for being there for Ted.
I am unable to attend the gathering in Ted’s honour but send along my best wishes from the old Cornwallis crew who still meet monthly for dinner, more than 50 years after we first came together.
