‘Legendary character’ in Canadian journalism
A former publisher of newspapers in Ottawa, Vancouver and Montreal and a driving force behind one of the most prestigious journalism awards in Canada has died.
Born in Chatham, Ont., Clark Davey had a long career that took him from local reporting to Parliament Hill and foreign corresponding, and a 15-year-stint as managing editor of the Globe and Mail newspaper.
He served as publisher for the Vancouver Sun, the Ottawa Citizen and the Montreal Gazette, and was a former president and chair of The Canadian Press.
Davey was in the first graduating class of journalism students at Western University in 1948 and began his career at the Chatham Daily News before working at the Northern Daily News in Kirkland Lake and later the Globe and Mail in the early 1950s.
He was at the United Nations in New York during the 1956 crisis over the Suez Canal.
One year later, in June1957, he was one of three reporters with John Diefenbaker on the election night when the Progressive Conservatives won and Dief the Chief learned he would become the country’s next prime minister.
“Clark was a legendary character in the Canadian newspaper industry,” said former Ottawa Citizen publisher Russell Mills.
Mills called him extremely thoughtful.