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1928 -

Patrick (Paddy) Sherman was born on March 16, 1928 in Newport, Monmouthshire, England. After grammar school he became an articled student for four years with a daily newspaper in Newport then worked at the Yorkshire Post group in Leeds before moving to Canada in 1952. The reason for the move was because he was told by the president of one of the climbing clubs in England that there were unclimbed 10,000-foot peaks within fifty miles of Vancouver. For his first three months he was with the Vancouver Sun but then switched to The Province. In 1960 he moved to Victoria and was the legislative reporter and a daily columnist for The Province until 1965. He moved back to Vancouver and became editor-in-chief and then publisher of The Province in 1972. In 1982 he volunteered to become the publisher of the Ottawa Citizen in Toronto then in 1986 after the president of the Southam Newspaper Group died, Sherman was asked to become president. He agreed, saying that he would re-organize it, find a successor and retire in three years. In 1989 he came back to Vancouver as part-time chairman of Pacific Press Ltd. and a couple of years later retired because it interfered with his skiing and climbing. In 1994, Paddy Sherman was inducted into the Canadian News Hall of Fame for his significant contribution to Canadian journalism. Sherman once wrote: "Press freedom is not mere special pleading by journalists. It means the innate right of Everyman to think what he will of this world and say it aloud. It is a fundamental freedom, not a gift for governments to grant. Despots would destroy it. Enlightened leaders destroy what limits it."

As a mountaineer, Sherman has been a member of the Alpine Club of Canada since 1953 and the American Alpine Club for over forty years. In 1954 he made the first ascent of Mount Gilbert, the closest unclimbed 10,000-footer he could find (with Neal Carter, Leon Blumer, Elfrida Pigou, A. Melville and D. and J. Young), then in 1955 he made the first ascent of Homathko Peak (with Elfrida Pigou, D. Lloyd, D. Cowie and D. and J. Fabian) then in 1955 he made the first ascent of Homathko Peak and the second ascent of Mount Queen Bess in the Coast Mountains. In December of that year, Sir Edmund Hillary visited Vancouver and Pacific Western Airlines organized a flight so Hillary would have an opportunity to see the Coast Mountains, and in particular Mount Waddington. Sherman was on the flight and invited Phyllis Munday along on what was to be a very exciting day for her. In 1957 saw first ascents of Joffre Peak (with Dick Chambers) and Mount Matier (with Dick Chamber, Joe Hutton, Roy mason and Cyril Scott), then in 1958 he organized and led the British Columbia Centennial Expedition to Mount Fairweather, at 15,300 feet the highest point in British Columbia, which had never been climbed before by Canadians. In 1964 he made the first ascent of Mount Harrison, the last unclimbed 11,000 foot peak with Ralph Hutchinson, Werner Himmelsbach, Joe Hutton, Brendan Moss and Don MacLaurin. As part of the Yukon Alpine Centennial Expedition in 1967 Sherman was the team leader on the attempt of Mount Manitoba and overseas he made the first ascent of the Western Spur on Peru's highest mountain Huascaran in 1969. In 1996 he made his first trip to Nepal and attempted Mera Peak.

Paddy Sherman wrote three books: Cloudwalkers: Six Climbs on Major Canadian Peaks (1965,) Bennett (1966)and Expeditions to Nowhere (1981.) For several years Sherman was the Assistant Editor for the Canadian Alpine Journal and he was the Chairman for the Vancouver Island section of the ACC for two years; 1963 and 1964. He became the Vancouver sections climbing chairman for several years and later joined the national executive as Western Vice-president and was a member of the expeditions committee. Sherman was also a founding director of the Mountain Rescue Group and Chairman of it a couple of times, and a founding director of Outward Bound British Columbia. In 1956 he was in charge of the mountain rescue for the plane crash on Mount Slesse that killed sixty people.

In 1994 Paddy Sherman was inducted into the Canadian News Hall of Fame. Founded in 1965 by the Toronto Press Club it now honours men and women who have contributed significantly to journalism in Canada. In 2005 he was one of the three jurors for the first annual British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction and in 2010 he gave the Presentation Ceremony introduction to one of the finalists with a witty but insightful speech. Once a journalist, always a journalist, Sherman remains actively involved with the industry that he spent his life pursuing. As a longtime Fellow of the International Press Institute (IPI) he continues to attend the World Congress meetings around the world advocating 'press freedom, the protection of freedom of opinion and expression, the promotion of the free flow of news and information, and the improvement of the practices of journalism'. Keith Mitchell, the Chair of the BC Achievement Foundation said of Paddy Sherman: "He has probably written enough that constitutes a mountain, something he's use to climbing."

Sources:
Sherman, Paddy. Personal communication. 2007.

Sherman, Paddy. "B.C.'s Unconquered Peaks." Vancouver Province. [Vancouver, B.C.] (October 24, 1953) p. 8 & 9.

"Paddy Sherman Writes Book on Mountaineering." The Daily Colonist. [ Victoria, B.C.] (September 12, 1965) p. 14.

Sherman, Paddy. Expeditions to Nowhere. Mountaineers. Seattle, Washington. 1981.

Sherman, Paddy. Cloudwalkers: Six Climbs on Major Canadian Peaks. Macmillan of Canada. Toronto, Ontario. 1965.

Sherman, Paddy. Bennett. McCelland and Stewart Ltd., Toronto, Ontario. 1966.

Sherman, Paddy. "Homathko and Queen Bess." Canadian Alpine Journal. Vol. 39. The Alpine Club of Canada. Banff, Alberta. 1956. p. 25-35.

Munday, Phyllis. "To Waddington With Hillary." Canadian Alpine Journal. Vol. 39. The Alpine Club of Canada. Banff, Alberta. 1956. p. 81-83.

Sherman, Paddy. "The Unexpected 11,000-footer." Canadian Alpine Journal. Vol. 48. The Alpine Club of Canada. Banff, Alberta. 1965. p. 102-108.

Sherman, Paddy. "Huascaran: The First Ascent of the Western Spur." Canadian Alpine Journal. Vol. 53. The Alpine Club of Canada. Banff, Alberta. 1970. p. 4-6.

Sherman, Paddy. "Mt. Queen Bess Munday Couloir." Canadian Alpine Journal. Vol. 65. The Alpine Club of Canada. Banff, Alberta. 1982. p. 66.

Scott, Chic. Pushing the Limits: The Story of Canadian Mountaineering. Rocky Mountain Books. Calgary, Alberta. 2000.

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