Obituary of Andrew Matte

On Wednesday, Andrew Matte wrote and wrote, learned how to use a new database and passed the hat in the Leader-Post newsroom to help a friend whose husband would be spending Christmas in hospital. By Thursday morning, the good-natured, big-hearted journalist was gone, having died overnight at home of causes yet to be determined. "That's exactly what he was about: Helping people, making the world better and telling a good story," said Ashley Martin, his colleague on the Leader-Post's QC weekly feature magazine. "He was a great coworker. It's going to be different without him." Matte was raised in Winnipeg and Ottawa. His late father Terry Matte was a long-time CBC reporter, and Andrew followed him into the field, working in Ottawa, Toronto and Boston. Andrew also learned from his father the art of being a handyman, which gave the younger Matte the raw material for hilarious stories about his adventures. He joined the Leader-Post in 2004 as a copy editor, indulging in his love of writing and music with a long string of reviews and articles on bands and concerts. In 2011, he transferred to the L-P's new weekly QC feature magazine as a writer, relishing the chance to write long, thoughtful articles, most recently an elegant profile of Regina Mayor Michael Fougere. But he also wrote poignantly about a sex offender, a man who had died after he climbed a signpost after a night of drinking and paid with his life, and a teen mom's connection to the daughter she gave up through a private adoption. Another newsroom colleague, city editor Tim Switzer, remembered Thursday how Matte turned a simple story about a homeless man's death by drowning into a respectful recounting of the man's life, giving him the gift of dignity and reminding readers that "there's a story behind these people." Prominent on his computer terminal was a book of postage stamps saluting Rush, his favourite band. His other passions were his hometown Ottawa Senators, playing hockey and his new vegan lifestyle. Matte was also the president of the union local in the Leader-Post newsroom, the Saskatchewan Media Guild, a local of CWA-SCA Canada. Mere weeks ago he helped organize a professional development seminar that drew journalists from across the province. And when former Leader-Post photographer Roy Antal was gravely ill, Matte helped organized a "feast" for him. His colleague Chris Harbron recalled, "His whole philosophy was, 'How can we, as the union, help others?' " But most of all, Switzer remembered how Matte's agile mind would analyze how the journalism business is changing, "and how we could do things in new and different ways." Forty-six years of age at the time of his death, Matte is survived by his mother, two brothers and his wife, Carmelle Ottenbreit.