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I first met Brian Martin, former editor of the Journal of Commerce, in the 1980s. I had just returned to Canada after a couple of years of living dangerously abroad and was hoping to carve out a career for myself in Vancouver as a freelance journalist and writer.

I was young and full of enthusiasm and ideas, but green as grass, so I was lucky that one of the first doors I knocked on was Brian’s. At the time the Journal’s offices were on West 12th Avenue in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood, not far from where I was living.

I showed him some writing samples and I guess he decided they were good enough to take a chance on me.  

I don’t remember what my first writing assignment was, but he took the story I had written and told me to submit my invoice. He was sufficiently tactful that I didn’t find out how bad my copy was until I read the edited story in the paper.

After that inauspicious debut, Brian gave me plenty of valuable tips for writing and interviewing and I took them to heart. It is thanks in part to Brian Martin that I’m still in the freelance writing game 30 years later.

Brian wasn’t always 100 per cent user-friendly. On occasion he could be acerbic and impatient. But I knew that beneath that sometimes-gruff exterior beat the heart of someone who really cared about other people.

Brian and I lost touch over the years. The last time I had any contact with him was a year ago. In the past I had interviewed him every year for some wise comment on the VRCA (Vancouver Regional °µÍø½ûÇøion Association) Awards of Excellence.

But last year his uncharacteristic response was that he didn’t have anything to tell me. That certainly didn’t sound like the Brian Martin I had known. I knew he was very sick and that his condition had been deteriorating. I hadn’t realized how sick he was until I received a note about his passing. So, I was shocked, but not surprised, to hear that he had died.

Thank you, Brian. You were a good friend and mentor when I needed it, and I will always be grateful for the example that you set.