Friends, associates and community leaders pay tribute to Bill.

For more than 110 years, through both celebration and tragedy, The Saskatoon StarPhoenix has reported on the news and published commentary and opinions on the issues facing our community.

It is not a job we do lightly or casually. It requires a commitment to important principles like fairness, transparency and truth. And often, our journalists are the ones that end up telling stories that need to be told, but that no one really wants to hear.

You need to be tough to work in newspapers. And you also need to be committed to your community. And both those traits are clearly present in Bill Petersen.

Bill started at The StarPhoenix as a copy boy in the 1970s and rose from reporter to city editor, editor-in-chief and publisher over two decades of service. His dedication to bringing together members of the community with the goal of making Saskatoon a better place to live is the reason we’re here tonight. It’s Bill’s reputation as a leader who invests in others that earned him this well-deserved honour.

Of course, The United Way is also at the centre of Saskatoon’s evolving story. The organization listens to the voices of those in our city with the greatest need - people lacking safety, shelter, health and hope for the future - and then they take action. This Dinner Date alone has raised more than $2 million over the years for the United Way’s Community Campaign.

The StarPhoenix and The United Way have been working together since 1959 to bring these needs to the citizens of Saskatoon and give them an opportunity to be heard. It’s natural for two trusted pillars of the city to come together for an event meant to honour dedication and the spirit of giving.

This is a time of rapid change in our city. Saskatoon is growing tremendously, requiring quick responses to new challenges. For The StarPhoenix, the printed page that was the standard when Bill was starting out has evolved to include new ways of communicating digitally through the Internet on tablets and mobile devices. But the need and responsibility to understand the issues facing our citizens has remained constant.

The StarPhoenix is proud to stand with organizations like The United Way and people like Bill Peterson in accomplishing this task.

We believe it’s a story worth telling.