Adrienne Pan, a journalist who had hosted CBC Edmonton’s afternoon radio display Radio Energetic in view that 2018, died on Saturday morning after fighting a major illness for months. She used to be FORTY THREE.
Pan grew up in Edmonton, graduating from Victoria School of the humanities in 1996.
Jules Van Soest become one in every of Pan’s easiest pals once they met at age 14 in a musical theatre magnificence at the Castle Theatre. She said Pan was once pushed and charismatic as a youngster — somebody folks obviously gravitated towards.
Even in highschool, where she anchored TELEVISION newscasts, Pan knew she sought after a occupation that will permit her be told one thing new each day, her husband, Ben Norman, said.
After earning a bachelor of arts from McGill School in 2000, Pan worked for Edmonton’s A-Channel and for International Information in Lethbridge and Winnipeg.
At The Same Time As at International, in 2007, she won a countrywide award for a tv documentary she produced approximately Harry Lehotsky, an inside-city pastor and group activist who had been identified with terminal pancreatic most cancers.
In 2011, two years after launching CBC Manitoba’s late-evening newscast, Pan back to her place of birth, web hosting CBC Edmonton’s late-evening TELEVISION newscast, then the 6 p.m. TELEVISION newscast.
Pan and CBC host Mark Connolly take a paddleboarding lesson all the way through a faraway broadcast from Edmonton’s Summerside neighbourhood in 2014. (CBC)
In 2016, she began filling in for Mark Connolly on CBC Edmonton’s morning radio show, Edmonton AM. On her second morning hosting the display, news of the Fortress McMurray wildfire broke.
“It was once a terrifying experience doing hours of unscripted radio, however it was once one in every of essentially the most vital moments in journalism i have experienced in my profession,” Pan mentioned in 2018, on reflection at the enjoy.
‘High standards for the whole lot she did’
within the CBC Edmonton newsroom and radio studio, Pan was known for being a difficult employee who prepared for every interview.
“My folks are immigrants they usually taught me to have a particularly devoted paintings ethic,” she instructed the Winnipeg Loose Press in 2007.
“She never shied clear of the cruel questions, or the tough paintings, and had prime standards for the whole thing she did,” said Stephanie Coombs, CBC Edmonton’s director of journalism and programming.
Coombs mentioned Pan impressed her colleagues to reach for high requirements, too.
“we will pass over her, each as a colleague and a pal, immensely,” she stated.
Otis, her six-year-old dachshund, was one in every of Pan’s many loves. (Submitted by means of Ben Norman)
Local meals lover
Pan had many loves, including music, movies, style, highway trips and cuddling up with her six-12 months-antique dachshund, Otis, however Radio Energetic listeners recognize one in every of her largest interests was once exploring Edmonton’s food scene.
“There are so much of people on the town who may say they owe a debt to Adrienne for her willingness and her passion for at all times desirous to feature restaurants that may be struggling and do not get the credit they deserve,” mentioned Phil Wilson, a meals writer and radio columnist.
Pan continuously sought out meals-related tales, spotlighting restaurants and profiling leading edge cooks and competition winners. She liked recommending native dishes, like green onion desserts, citron-honey crullers at Rosewood Meals, pasta at Corso 32, French onion soup at Partake or dim sum at Golden Rice Bowl.
She volunteered as a pass judgement on on the Edmonton Historical Past Festival and at the side of food columnists Twyla Campbell and Wilson, she worked on annual roundups of the town’s best eating places — each person compiling a listing in their top picks one at a time, then revealing them to every other.
“It was once all the time a highlight of the yr for me as we mercilessly teased one another for a minimum of one or picks from each and every listing,” Wilson said.
Twyla Campbell, Phil Wilson and Pan collaborated yearly on ‘easiest restaurant’ lists, sharing their favourite restaurants and dishes on CBC Edmonton’s systems. (CBC)
considered one of the traits Wilson most prominent approximately his friend was once her honesty. Doreen Prei also preferred the direct means Pan communicated with other folks.
Prei, the manager chef at Edmonton restaurant May and a Radio Lively columnist, advanced a friendship with Pan soon after she took the website hosting chair on Radio Active. Though Prei stopped coming into the studio for columns, their friendship deepened in the course of the pandemic.
Even As in medical institution, Pan texted Prei about a burger she used to be dreaming approximately.
The burger used to be layered with cream cheese, cucumbers and sprouts, which Prei had not dressed as a result of she didn’t want them to wilt.
“After I dropped off that burger, a bit of later on I got a text and he or she mentioned to me that the burger was once lacking acidity,” Prei recalled.
“that’s what I liked about her — she was tremendous fair.”
Pan with her husband, Ben Norman. In 2018, she produced a radio documentary that was inspired by her enjoy of being married to a pipeliner. (Submitted through Ben Norman)
Norman stated his wife loved discovering small restaurants and speaking about them.
He said he’s going to pass over dinners along with her essentially the most.
“I’ve never enjoyed having a meal with anybody else as a lot as I did with her,” he mentioned.
Interest and compassion
a strong important philosopher with a large middle, Pan may just each hold robust folks responsible and inform personal or emotional tales with sensitivity and care.
In 2018, she produced The Pipeliner Better Halves Club, a radio documentary that combined her own revel in being married to a pipeliner with the ones of other women.
On or off the air, Van Soest mentioned, Pan approached people with curiosity and openness. She can have a deep conversation with with reference to anyone, empowering them to percentage a story, even if it was just for 5 minutes.
“She believed in other people such a lot,” she said.
Norman mentioned he’ll always remember his wife’s smile.
“i don’t assume there is a image within the global with out that smile of hers,” he said.
as well as to her husband, Pan is survived by means of her parents, Maggie and Daniel Pan, her brother Jason and his spouse Jen, her nieces Elena and Alyssa, and her dachshund, Otis.
Adrienne Pan is a bunch at CBC Edmonton. Her husband, Ben, is a application welder who works on pipelines. when they first met, Ben had made up our minds to go away that life at the back of. Then, 3 years into their marriage, he got again into it. Ben is now on a seven-month Enbridge settlement, dwelling over 1,000 km clear of his wife. that is no longer the marriage Adrienne had in mind. So, she’s attaining out to a bunch she’s found herself an element of – a gaggle she calls “The Pipeliner Other Halves Club.” 30:02