bout de papier, Vol. 12, No. 2 (1995) — Summer 1995 // Été 1995, p. 2
We will remember you always, Charles and Sidney.
We bring you the Summer edition with our hearts filled with sadness. Two of the most distinguished members of our Senior Editorial Board, Charles Ritchie and Sidney Freifeld, passed away in the weeks preceding the release of this edition. This alas is the last edition of bout de papier which will bear proudly their names on our masthead. In the fall edition we intend to pay tribute and homage to the distinguished careers of both these remarkable and wonderful men. bout de papier will miss the help, advice and writings of Mr. Ritchie and Mr. Freifeld. Both were strong and early supporters of the magazine and contributed not only many articles but also ideas for articles and stories. They attended religiously all Senior Editorial Board meetings and spread the news of the magazine to their wide variety of contacts.
Both also had a personal impact on me. I had never considered a career in the foreign service until I read Charles Ritchie’s The Siren Years. Until then, I thought the foreign service was inhabited by serious stuffed shirts with no sense of humour who were intent only on dealing with esoteric issues of state and diplomacy, whatever that was. The Siren Years revealed a universe of amusing people in the foreign service who knew how to laugh at themselves while working for Canada. Later, Sidney Freifeld’s humourous articles on life in the foreign service in the Globe and Mail and in this magazine pushed me to write pieces which painted the comic side of our life and work. Like Sidney, I tried to do this without getting fired.
We hope bout de papier can be counted as a small but real part of the legacy that these two great Canadians leave behind them. In the same month that we learned about their deaths, we were informed that bout had won its ninth magazine award (and fifth consecutive international award for creativity). bout won the 1994 Certificate of Distinction from the Art Direction Magazine of New York for creativity in an association magazine. As a reminder for readers of the winning edition, we have reproduced its cover (Fall 1994, Volume 11 No. 3).
We will miss Charles and Sidney on our Board. We will miss their wit and joie de vivre. bout will carry on their memory and their legacy and we dedicate our latest award to their memory. Au revoir, old friends.
View the original scanned pages →
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 12, No. 2 (1995) — Summer 1995 // Été 1995, p. 2. Read the rest of this issue →
