As The Mail celebrates its centennial it would be remiss if it didn’t feature the man who guided the direction of The Drumheller Mail for many years.
In many ways, Ossie Sheddy also helped to guide the town through some of its lean years and helped to put many of the pieces in place that the community has built upon and achieved success.
While the family homestead was in Wardlow, just 80 kilometres east of Drumheller, it wasn’t until 1940 that Ossie came to make a home in the valley. At just 22, he moved from Edmonton and worked as a salesman for Canadian Packers, and roomed with Dr. Brummie Aiello for some time.
While he was only in the valley for a couple years, he did manage to woo Florence Durrant of Rockyford, and the young couple moved to Edmonton where he went to work on a wartime US military oil project. Around this time he was also called up to serve in the military and was stationed in Calgary for a short time.
After he was discharged the couple made their way back to the valley, and began raising their family.
Rather than go back to his job with Canadian Packers, he had a calling to be an entrepreneur and with no restaurant experience he bought the Crystal Café, which he operated for nine years.
Toward the end of the 1940s, he and a small collection of businessmen in the valley were able to purchase mineral rights on some land in the Munson area. In 1952, Mazel 1 struck oil. He didn’t stay in the oil industry very long, however, and he and friends Sammy Robb and John Anderson bought The Drumheller Mail from the Clark Brothers. He eventually bought out his partners’ shares and became the full owner and third publisher in The Mail’s history.
Known to be outspoken, he never shied away from getting into the thick of issues and his columns “With Malice Toward None” and then the famous “Roundabout” became legendary.
While busy with the newspaper he remained active with a number of service clubs and served as a City Councillor for 19 years.
In the early sixties Drumheller was struggling as coal mining revenue dried up. He was a part of a clutch of civic leaders that spearheaded bringing the Drumheller Institution to the community. This secured the financial viability of the valley for years to come.
His experience lobbying government paid off again two decades later when he and another group of civic leaders bent the ear of then Premier Peter Lougheed and set the groundwork for the Royal Tyrrell Museum.
Ossie owned the newspaper from 1954 to 1993 and worked there up until his passing in 2000. Even while he was in the hospital for the illness that eventually took his life, when he did get a day pass he used it to sell advertising to the chairman of Health Authority 5.
Through the years, whether it was on his regular sales calls, on the golf course, on the curling rink, or in heated debate around the council table, he left an impression on those with whom he worked and loved, and the valley has been better for it.
