Bloomberg reporter in Toronto dies

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• I am shocked and saddened to hear of Matt's passing. I worked with him for three years at the Record in Kitchener. Matt was a quirky guy with a huge heart and was dedicated to his craft of covering business. He was a hard guy to get to know at first, but once you penetrated his inscrutable exterior, he was a true friend. It was always hard to keep up with Matt because he knew how to dig out some amazing stories, but in doing so, he raised the bar for journalism at the Record. His tussles with Jim Balsillie and RIM were legendary. RIM was so scared of him that they banned anyone at the company from talking to him. Matt was also a big sports fan. The Cleveland Browns, sadly, were his favourite team. Matt arranged a number of sports outings including a Super Bowl party, a trip to the World Baseball Classic in Toronto and a trip to a Bills game in Buffalo. He was a journalist to the end. His op-ed piece on scuffling with some Aboriginal protesters in Caledonia over his camera was a true classic. In his short time at the Record he made a huge impression. He will be missed. My heart goes out to his family.

• Me too. Shocked and saddened. I worked with him for three years as well, and he had a heart of gold.
  He could always be counted on to say just the right thing when you were feeling down and to send just the right e-card at the right time.
  I was awed by his intelligence, and by his commitment to good journalism.
  I loved his quirky sense of humour.
  I wish he could have been with us here in Kitchener longer and was sorry when he left, but was so glad when he got the job in Toronto with Bloomberg.
  We will miss him a lot.
  My heart goes out to his family. Please know that he was special to us, and he will be missed.
  Rose

• It is heartbreaking to know that Matt is gone.
  He was one of the best journalists I have ever known and I was also privileged to call him a friend.
  He had many endearing qualities, including an inexplicable homesickness for Honey Nut Cheerios which he could not find when he was in Prague -- this drove him crazy, even years later.
  He was kind and peaceful, except when he encountered a bully, and then he called the bully out and would not back down -- whether it was a local captain of industry, violent Islamic fundamentalists, or a group of aboriginal protesters demanding his camera on a public street.
  It takes courage to confront a bully, but shy and gentle as Matt was, he always had courage. That was what made him such a good journalist.

  Dear Matt, we will miss you and we will remember you.
  I hope your family is comforted to know that we in Kitchener remember him with deep affection.

  Luisa

• An amazingly talented reporter. Like other reporters, I was always impressed by the way Matt's mind worked and his ability to pursue a story. He was brilliantly strong with numbers and data, but my favourite story of his was his story about a family that owned a gas station in Kitchener. I used his story as an example of how we can humanize business reporting to my college class. Matt and I often crossed swords about baseball and football (he was a Cleveland fan, I was a Detroit fan) but he always smiled at the end of a good debate. His passing is a tremendous loss to journalism. My prayers go out to his friends and family.

• We're all pretty shaken up on the stocks team here at Bloomberg in New York. Though Matt worked in Toronto, most of his stories were edited by our desk in NY. Others who have commented above pretty much hit the nail on the head, as far as our memories of Matt Walcoff go. He was the real deal -- he had a brilliant, analytical mind and was committed fully to fair and accurate journalism.

  The Bloomberg terminal, with all its complexities, was a perfect match for a guy like Matt. It wasn't long after he was hired that he began teaching us functions on the terminal that many of us didn't know existed.

  One story of Matt's that I edited was a write-up of some research by an analyst at a major bank. Matt noticed some pretty big errors in the report, and alerted the analyst who wrote it. The guy fixed the errors and sent out a corrected report, which is the one Matt wrote up. You're not exactly a lightweight in financial news when you do things like that.

  I'll never forget Matt for being one of the first people to send me words of encouragement after my daughter suffered a major injury. And his quirky sense of humor will be greatly missed. Below is something he sent around to our team a few months ago under the subject "Six degrees of separation" and it serves as a good example of his sense of humor and how his mind never stopped thinking. ("Muse" is the name of our arts section.)

  Team:

  *You work for Matt Winkler.
  *The MUSE editor works for Matt Winkler.
  *George Walden writes book reviews for the MUSE editor.
  *George Walden's daughter is Celia Morgan.
  *Celia Morgan is married to Piers Morgan.
  *Piers Morgan is buddies with Charlie Sheen.

  Congratulations.

  ---
  Matt Walcoff, Canada stocks reporter
  Bloomberg News, Toronto

• I worked with Matt for 2 years on our High School newspaper. I am very sorry to hear this. He was Editor and I was the Editorialist. We had a few good natured battles over content our senior year. What a shame. My heart goes out to his family. Much too young, that's for sure