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Eyeopener alumnus dead at 58

By Mohamed Omar

Online Editor

Veteran Canadian journalist Peter Morton died Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012 of a heart attack at his home in Bethesda, Maryland. He was 58.

Morton, who studied journalism at Ryerson and was managing editor at the Eyeopener during that time, was a veteran trade, political and economic reporter and columnist.

After graduating in 1976, Morton went on to work at the Calgary Herald, where he covered city hall and business news until 1986. In 1985, he received a Southam Fellowship to study economics at the University of Toronto. Morton was bureau chief for the Financial Post in Washington from 1996 to 2008.

Bob Blakey, a reporter and photographer based in Alberta, met Morton at the Calgary Herald.

“I’ll remember two aspects of Peter — his work and his personality,” Blakey said in an e-mail. “On the job, he was a first-rate reporter and writer, and he loved the news business. He was diligent about getting all sides of a story and being fair and accurate in his stories, and he was fast on deadline.”

Away from work, Morton loved golf.

In an interview with Luiza Savage, a Washington correspondent for Maclean’s, he said his alternative career would have been a “golf course marshall.”

His favourite place in Canada was Brockville, Ont., where he was “a cub reporter” at the Brockville Recorder & Times, “with a Speed Graphix camera and a red bicycle.”

Blakey said he’ll remember Morton’s laugh more than anything. “He had an infectious giggle that made everybody smile when it drifted across the newsroom, and it fit his personality — that of an easy-going guy outside of work duties, who was loyal to his friends and warm to colleagues,” he said.

“A third thing comes to mind — his flaming red hair.”

Morton is survived by his wife Cathie, his four daughters, and his six grandchildren.

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