In the quiet of a Sunday morning, John ‘Jack’ Tennant chose to spend his remaining moments basking outside in the sun and surrounded by friends and family, rather than in a hospital bed, as his giant heart took its final beats. The Cochrane Eagle founder and one of the most well-known pillars of the community died at the age of 82 of heart failure on May 20, propelled by a declining battle with kidney failure. Unless you’re dead or in Edmonton (to quote one of Jack’s most famous column ledes) and you have lived in Cochrane for longer than five minutes, you have at least heard of the retired photojournalist-turned-columnist, publisher and philanthropist or bumped into him at any given coffee shop. If it was during the month of December, you are correctly thinking of the man who wore a Santa hat for each of the 31 days, year after year. His Page 2 columns in the Cochrane Eagle remain among the most talked about and missed weekly accounts since hanging up his publisher’s hat in 2013. Talked about because they never stopped short of stirring the pot, including ruffling a political feather or two. Missed because they spoke to his expansive readership at the deepest human level – free of any pretentiousness. There are few political leaders, including prime ministers, First Nations chiefs and Western Canadian celebrities, who hadn’t met Jack throughout his years as a newspaper publisher in various southern Alberta towns and longtime columnist for the Calgary Sun. A proud father to sons Alan and Ian, Jack watched Alan raise a family and become a successful CEO of the Calgary Real Estate Board, while his youngest followed in his father’s footsteps – now an instructor of journalism at Mount Royal University. “His legacy is all the people who he helped over the years – and the Eagle. We launched that from nothing,” said Ian. With his twinkling, pale blue eyes Jack never ran short of stories to tell – his own or those of the world around him. Right up until his final weeks he would make his way to the Eagle office with a tip or tidbit (the latter of which was the slogan on his personalized licence plate). “He’s one of the throwbacks to the journalists who learned by doing. Some of the things they had to go through to get the story …” laughed Ian, recanting an early Manitoba tale where photographer Jack had to hold the TV light for a doctor to perform a foot amputation at the scene of a car crash that Jack was on assignment to cover. Like clockwork, during election season on any level, contenders would scour the paragraphs to see if the whistle had been blown on them just as advocates would smile over his praise of the community effort to back this cause or that person in need. No matter the subject at hand, the cheeky columnist found a way to look at it in a positive light. In life, the only thing it seemed that Jack loved more than rousing those of societal or political importance was to champion the underdog, to give a hand up to the fallen or forgotten – highlighted frequently through his unwavering support of veterans, children and animals and those who suffered from the woes of addiction, celebrating 52 years of sobriety himself after a mid-1960s stint on the streets of Vancouver where his alcoholism reached bottom. In the decades since, he has given back through the Alcoholics Anonymous community as a sponsor and mentor. Through his work as a Sun columnist he was also the public face of the SUNshine Fund – which raised over $1 million for the Salvation Army. Seniors for Kids, the Cochrane and Area District Foundation and the Cochrane and Area Humane Society were among the charities Jack advocated for, volunteered with and scrawled about. A proud Scotsman by heritage, Jack also had a penchant for the bagpipes, which he learned to play, and enjoyed the music of the Cochrane Pipe Band. He was also a go-to to emcee for the Cochrane area, a natural in the public eye. His compassion also extended to the nearby Stoney Nakoda First Nation in Morley. Ian said it was early on in their Cochrane newspaper tenure that his father made the conscious choice to extend courtesy and improve relationships between Cochrane and Morley. “We’re gonna miss Jack,” said Sykes Powderface, a respected Stoney Nakoda elder and longtime friend of Jack – who was named “Gentle Buffalo” by his Stoney friends. “He was always smiling and he was always ready to listen if I had to get something off my chest. I never heard him complain.” Powderface commended his late friend for his unrelenting support of Morley – through promotion of the Nation businesses and initiatives, to establishing long-term friendships to mentoring youth. He was also a pretty good golfing partner. “He was very much involved in relationship-building. Over the years we’ve lost so much of those relationships with Cochrane and with Cochrane ranchers. Since he came along he got deeply involved with the Stoney people,” Powderface said. A large stature dwarfed only by the enormity of his heart, Jack spent 60 years in the newspaper business – rooted in humble beginnings as a farm kid in Brandon, Man. He cut his teeth as a photographer’s apprentice in 1955 at the Brandon Sun. Three years later, Jack spent a stint in television and radio at CKX-TV in Brandon, finding his way back into newspapers at the Kamloops Sentinel in Kamloops, B.C. As Ian went on to play junior hockey, so Jack spent several years working from behind the bench – as general manager for the WHL's Kamloops Chiefs junior team (now the Seattle Thunderbirds) and eventually called up to the Calgary Centennials (now the Tri-City Americans), which triggered the move from B.C. to Alberta. By the late 1970s, the call came to throw himself fully into journalism. Jack started as a desker then a city editor for the Calgary Albertan, which became the Calgary Sun in 1980. He put together a colourful 17-year career as a notorious columnist who dished it out whenever the call came to do so. Jack even ran a joke campaign against the late mayor of Calgary-turned premier, Ralph Klein, in 1980 – one that centered on platforms like the legalization of marijuana, free buses for seniors and saw him handing out random shirt buttons as “campaign pins.” Throughout the 1980s, Jack and Brenda – his partner in life and in newspapers for the last 38 years – saw their way through buying, building and selling southern Alberta weekly newspapers, beginning with the Airdrie Echo and Rocky View Times in 1980, followed by the Crossfield Chronicle several years later.. In 1984, they started Cochrane This Week which they ran until selling it in 1994. Ian, ending his professional hockey career by age 22, and Alan, before entering the real estate world, worked alongside Jack and Brenda. Ian knew his dad couldn’t stay retired, when he contacted him to kickstart a new newspaper. For Ian, it seemed like a good time to move back to Canada from Texas, where he had been working at the Houston Chronicle. For Jack, it was just the beginning of a chapter of his life where giving back and making a statement extended to even more people and organizations. In 2001, the Cochrane Eagle was launched and Ian returned to Canada as a part owner and editor, working alongside his dad and Brenda – the current publisher. “His positivity … and his stories,” said Ian of what he will miss most about his father, his mentor. “Every day above ground was a good day, according to him.” Jack is survived by his wife, Brenda, his sons Alan (Rona) and Ian. His granddaughters Lisa (Laura), Michelle (Matt); grandchildren Lochlan, Smith and Mateo; his sister Ruth and brother Mark. He is predeceased by his sister Louise, who died from cancer a week ago, as well as his parents. In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting donations be made to The Cochrane and Area Humane Society or The Kidney Foundation of Canada. A celebration of Jack’s life will take place at RockPointe Church in Bearspaw on May 29 at 2 p.m.
