2013.12.10 | CWA Canada Local 30205 | Ottawa Newspaper Guild

 

Death of retired CTV Ottawa news anchor
shocks former colleagues, community

As news of the death of Leigh Chapple, a retired CTV Ottawa journalist and longtime union member, swept through the media today, former colleagues and people in the community expressed both shock and sorrow.

The family has not revealed the cause of her death at age 58, other than to say she died peacefully at home.

Chapple retired in May 2012 after 36 years at CTV Ottawa (formerly CJOH-TV), during which time she became a media mainstay in households throughout Eastern Ontario and West Quebec.

She began her career as an assistant to anchor Max Keeping, moved on to reporting, was host of Regional Contact, and eventually became the station’s late-night news anchor.

Chapple was a member of the CTV Ottawa unit of the Ottawa Newspaper Guild.

Keeping told CBC News that Chapple’s legacy will be the number of young reporters she helped mentor, whether at CTV or as an instructor at Algonquin College.

She and her husband, Dean Holmes, an editor who also worked at CTV Ottawa, retired at the same time so they could spend more time together.

The comment sections of CTV and CBC websites as well as social media were awash with reaction to Chapple’s death:

• Leigh was what all journalism/broadcast students should strive to be: a consummate professional, fair, just, combined with an innate warmth and caring that you could feel when you watched her broadcasts. I was sad to see her leave television, and now even more so — for all she wanted to do, but ran out of time.

• Condolences to her family and to her CTV family. A terrible loss. We always enjoyed watching Leigh through the years. She was a real down to earth friend of the community.

• A good journalist, but a good person who cared about our community. Big city with small town feel from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Will be missed.