NORMAN WEBSTER

(Québec & St John's 1962) (4 April 1941 - 19 November 2021)

Born in Summerside, Norman Webster grew up in the Eastern Townships and went to Bishop’s University in Lennoxville. In his last year at Bishop’s, Norman won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University to study philosophy, politics and economics. While studying at Oxford, Norman met his future wife Patterson en route to France.

Norman began working at the Globe as a reporter in 1965 and reported from Quebec City, China, Ontario and England. He became editor-in-chief of the Globe and Mail from 1983 to 1989. He is perhaps most famous for his reporting on China during the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as one of the few Western reporters in China at the time.

After leaving the Globe and Mail, Norman became editor-in-chief of the Montreal Gazette from 1989 to 1993 and continued to write a regular column for the newspaper after stepping down from that role.

After leaving his job as editor of the Gazette, Norman ran the R. Howard Webster Foundation, which gives grants to non-profit corporations.

Norman died in November 2021 from complications of Parkinson’s disease at the age of 80.

Norman leaves his wife, Patterson; children, David, Andrew, Derek, Gillian and Hilary; 11 grandchildren; sister, Maggie; and many nieces and nephews.