Wallie Sears (inset) covered thousands of games played on Mount Allison’s Alumni Field

Tantramar Mayor Andrew Black delivered a heartfelt tribute today to one of Sackville’s most beloved and accomplished citizens.

“Wallie Sears was one of the greatest community-minded people that you would ever meet,” Black said. “He and his wife, Norma.”

Sears, who died last Thursday at 95, was a prolific reporter and columnist whose work appeared in the Sackville Tribune Post and other newspapers in the Maritimes for more than six decades.

“If you didn’t watch sports, he was the kind of person who could convince you to watch sports because of his absolute love for people who were engaged and involved in sports in all levels in the community,” Black said.

“He was a huge supporter of anything that was Sackville or the area, not just around sports, but local politics, provincial politics — his wealth of knowledge about New Brunswick and beyond was just incredible,” the mayor added.

“He seemed to know everything about everything.”

Black pointed out that after the Tribune-Post folded in 2020, Sears continued his reporting and commentary on social media including Facebook.

First draft of history

“I was always astounded at how many stories he would cover in a week,” former Sackville Mayor John Higham said during a tribute he delivered during Sears’s funeral on Sunday at the Sackville United Church.

“And I think how many young people were just tickled pink seeing their names or their pictures in those papers from his coverage and probably a few older ones who felt the same.”

“Wallie’s impact on recording the history of Sackville cannot be understated,” said Lourdes (Richard) Fowler, a former editor of the Tribune Post in a tribute the paper published in 2019 to mark Sears’s 90th birthday.

“It has been said that journalism is the first rough draft of history, and Wallie has diligently, for decades, recorded much of it for posterity in the Sackville Tribune-Post and other newspapers across the province,” the paper quoted Fowler as saying.

“His reporting over the years helped reflect the community back to itself.”

Wallie Sears during a rally in 2021 to protest against provincial plans to cut services at Sackville Memorial Hospital

Pointed commentary

Sears wrote thousands of stories on the Mounties teams at Mount Allison University’s athletics program and thousands more on high school sports.

In one of his last Tribune-Post columns published in February 2020, he asked “why hockey is the lone sport where it’s unsafe to line up for a handshake following completion of a game.”

He observed there’s a lot of passion in other sports like basketball, but noted it would be astonishing to see a fight break out in a post-game handshake on a basketball court.

“It seems that Sackville Minor Hockey Club president David Wheaton may have it right when he says such bad behaviour is indicative of a lack of discipline beginning at home,” Sears noted pointedly.

‘Great life, well lived’

Fittingly, Mayor Black’s tribute to Wallie Sears came just a few minutes after he had issued a proclamation declaring March 28th as the town’s 10th annual Mountie Day in recognition of how much Mount Allison’s athletics programs contribute to the community.

As a co-founder and later inductee in Sackville’s Sports Wall of Fame, Sears was a tireless promoter of local sports.

And, according to Black, he was also a memorable character.

“He was the kind of person that when you met him, you remembered him forever,” he said.

“Because of his welcoming and warm attitude to people, you were always a part of Wallie’s life, [it’s] a huge loss to the community,” Black added.  “He’s a legend.”

Councillor Allison Butcher agreed.

“But also,” she said, “what a great life, well lived.”

To read Wallie Sears’s obituary, click here.