By Geoff Agombar
Local Journalism Initiative
Maurice Cloutier, former editor-in-chief of La Tribune, passed away Oct. 15 at the age of 60 following a long battle with skin cancer.
Plaudits and fond remembrances flooded in from friends and colleagues celebrating his role as an ardent champion for local news and his engaged service to the community.
Throughout these tributes, one note rings repeatedly. Optimist, generous, benevolent. A mentor. An attentive ear.
“On the afternoon of Oct. 13, Maurice told me how lucky he felt because he had had the opportunity to talk to everyone who was important to him,” Cloutier’s wife Louise Martin told La Tribune. “To the very end of his life, Maurice felt lucky.”
Cloutier began his career at La Tribune’s Victoriaville bureau in 1984. Over a 35-year career, he climbed up the ranks from reporter, news editor and news director, to editor-in-chief, associate editor and general manager.
Journalist Alain Goupil joined the paper not long after in 1990. He remembers Cloutier as much more than a strong journalist with a profound love for the profession. Goupil says he was quite simply the best anyone could hope for in a colleague and a boss.
