Always in our hearts: Bill McConkey, Jan. 16, 1949–March 31, 2017

Bill McConkey, Jan. 16, 1949–March 31, 2017, in a photo taken around 1990. The staff of Nunatsiaq News, Nortext Publishing Corp. and Ayaya Communications will never forget our beloved advertising manager, who dedicated more than three decades of his life to our newspaper. (PHOTO COURTESY OF LAURA MCCONKEY)

The staff of Nunatsiaq News, Nortext Publishing Corp. and Ayaya Communications are this week grieving the sudden loss of a dear friend and unforgettable colleague: William George “Bill” McConkey.

Bill, 68, died unexpectedly March 31 at the Ottawa General Hospital, following complications that arose during routine surgery.

He was laid to rest April 5 at the New Union Cemetery in North Dundas township, near his family home in the village of Chesterville, south of Ottawa.

Bill started work as advertising sales manager with Nunatsiaq News in 1984, when the newspaper was owned by Frobisher Press Ltd. He continued to serve in that role under Nunatext Publishing Corp., a Nortext subsidiary that completed its purchase of the newspaper in the fall of 1985.

For most of those 33 years, Bill was the tireless engine that drove Nunatsiaq News into the 21st century.

Michael Roberts, the president of Ayaya Communications and Marketing and Nortext Publishing Corp., which publishes Nunatsiaq News, said he first met Bill in 1984, when the Iqaluit-only newspaper was then printed on an offset duplicator and set in handwritten Inuktitut syllabics and typewritten English.

“Over the last 33 years, Bill was a key driving force in making Nunatsiaq News what it is today. He worked through blizzards, floods, and missed planes, and always got the newspaper off to press,” Roberts said.

“Last week was no exception as he put to bed a full-colour newspaper distributed across the Arctic and half way around the globe. He was a newspaper man through and through, and an icon of northern publishing.”

Bill was born in Barrie, Ont. in 1949. As a young boy, he moved with his family to Mississauga, where he attended Gordon Graydon Memorial Secondary School.

After graduation from high school, he studied journalism and communications at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ont., and in the early stages of his career, sold advertising for Torstar Corp. and the Oakville Beaver.

But it was at Nunatsiaq News where Bill made his mark.

He presided over the transformation of Nunatsiaq News from a small, struggling community newspaper into a modern publication that is now a respected newspaper of record for Nunavut and Nunavik that attracts thousands of online readers from around Canada and the circumpolar world.

Over Bill’s tenure, the production of the print newspaper moved from mechanical paste-up, hand-printed black and white photos and halftones, handwritten syllabics, and English text formed into columns on manual typewriters into computerized phototypesetting, digital colour photography and desktop publishing on QuarkXpress.

When Nunatsiaq News launched its daily internet news service, Nunatsiaq Online, Bill designed sales contracts that brought our advertisers into our online edition, which now attracts at least 15,000 to 20,000 pageviews per day from Monday to Friday each week.

Bill also had a warm, compassionate heart and a strong social conscience. With his good friend Joe Kunuk of Iqaluit, he helped start the Upassuraakut counselling service at building 1079 in Iqaluit and was a key member of their board.

In the early 1990s, Upassuraakut started Nunavut’s only residential substance abuse treatment centre, which operated at a building in Apex that now serves as the Qimaavik women’s shelter.

An avid golfer, Bill organized Iqaluit’s first on-the-ice golf tournament during Toonik Tyme festivities in the late 1980s, and used his public relations and marketing skills to attract numerous sponsors to the event, which raised money for charity.

Most of all, Bill’s numerous friends, co-workers and family members will remember him for his relentless optimism, his mischievous sense of humour and the emotional support that helped us cope with the sometimes overwhelming pressure of the newspaper business.

After the news of Bill’s passing began to spread last Friday afternoon, many of his friends have been sharing their feelings on his Facebook page.

“I will miss my friend Bill McConkey. My friend for over thirty years. Good man, good soul. We love you Bill,” Suzie Napayok, one of nearly 100 commenters, said on Facebook.

Bill leaves his wife, Nenit McConkey, daughter Czarina Palacio, son Nathan McConkey, his first wife, Debbie McConkey, and daughter Laura McConkey.

He also leaves sisters Patricia McAulay, Wendy McConkey and Margaret Long, and brother George McConkey.

He is predeceased by his father, Frederick George McConkey and by his mother, Emily McConkey.