Garry Fairbairn, a national-level journalist best known for his stint as editor of one of Canada’s major farm newspapers, has died.
Fairbairn, the 62-year-old former editor of the Western Producer, suffered a fatal heart attack at home in Calgary, his family reported in an obituary in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix newspaper Saturday.
Fairbairn, the son of journalist and former Producer editor Clarence Fairbairn, was born at Arcola, Sask. and grew up in Winnipeg. He earned a master’s degree in history from Ottawa’s Carleton University before entering journalism in 1969, working for the Canadian Press wire service on assignments from Calgary to Montreal and south to Washington, D.C.
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Fairbairn became a published author upon winning a competition to write a history book marking the 60th anniversary of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool (now Viterra).
The book, From Prairie Roots: The Remarkable Story of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, was published in 1984 and would be followed by Will the Bounty End? The Uncertain Future of Canada’s Food Supply that same year, and Canada Choice: Economic, Health and Moral Issues in Food from Animals, in 1989.
Fairbairn and his family relocated to Saskatoon from Calgary in 1981, where he worked as a freelance writer before being named managing editor of the Producer in 1983.
He was later named the Saskatoon-based weekly ag newspaper’s editor-in-chief, and is credited with overseeing the paper’s transition to computerized operations.
Fairbairn left the SaskPool-owned paper in 1999, two years before its sale to its current owner, Vancouver-based publishing firm Glacier Ventures International.
Fairbairn’s family on Saturday noted he suffered from growing health problems in the years leading up to and following his departure from the ag newspaper business. He returned to Calgary and by 2008 had moved to Carter Place, a seniors’ housing block operated by Trinity Place Foundation of Alberta in the city’s core.
Details have not yet been confirmed for a funeral or memorial.
