A Fixture of the Glebe scene has left us

Editor, Glebe Report

For more than 35 years, Glebites have been used to seeing my father John Horvath taking his daily walks around the community and holding court at the local coffee shops, eagerly engaging neighbours in discussions on a multiplicity of topics, from the science of vegan diets to Xi Jinping’s four brick volumes on the governance of China. Our community is a little quieter now, with his sudden passing on April 13.

“This above all – to thine own self be true.” John Horvath was a fervent believer in the power of great written words, with a radical authenticity of character that would surely have endeared him to Shakespeare.

His natural charisma, passion for debating ideas and big heart drew people to him from all walks of life, endlessly expanding the circle of people that he called “family”.

As an immigrant from the revolution in Hungary, he always remembered even the smallest kindness and lived his life with a deliberate practice of actively finding ways to pay it forward tenfold. If he found a five-dollar bill on the street, he would turn and give $50 to someone he thought could use it. If he saw a student struggling, he would buy them a cup of coffee –or ten. He approached each day as an opportunity to be of service – in the truest, most profound manner – to his family, friends and community.

John Horvath was a fixture of the Glebe community. His loss will be deeply felt.

Kathryn Aubrey-Horvath

Serendipity indeed

Editor, Glebe Report

Re: “The Joys of used-book discoveries,” by Daniel Miranda, Glebe Report, April 2023.

Patrick Scott, the formidable Globe and Mail editor featured in Daniel Miranda’s April 14 story, would have, when he was slot man in his earlier Globe career, likely sent home the rim person who breached your apparent headline style by capitalizing the second word.

The used book, Canadian Newspapers: The Inside Story, (which I haven’t read) was, as Mr. Miranda noted, marked as a gift to Patrick Scott’s wife, Maggie. The likely reason it ended up in an Ottawa usedbook store was because Maggie spent her last years in an Ottawa old age home, using a wheelchair. The book was likely among her few remaining possessions.

My former wife, Maxine, who met Maggie when they both worked at the Toronto Star in the 60s, visited Maggie a couple of times in the Ottawa old age home. I don’t know when Maggie, a sharp-tongued, tough-minded Brit totally devoted to her husband, died.

When the Scotts had fallen on leaner times in the latter part of the 70s, after Patrick’s acrimonious parting from the Star, Maxine and I for three years had them out to our house for Christmas dinner. I would pick them up and deliver them home.

As Globe city editor, Patrick may have raised the eyebrows and concerns of some, among them the esteemed Michael Enright, for the dictatorial style of management he

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