Joan Hollobon
at her 90th birthday party

Yesterday was the 94th birthday of Joan Hollobon, who some among you may remember as the Globe and Mail‘s medical reporter from the early 1960s until her retirement in 1985.

Joan, whose career spanned the founding of Medicare to the early days of the AIDS pandemic, was also a founder of the Canadian Science Writers Association, which awarded her its first lifetime achievement award in 2010.

I’m posting this late because I had lunch and spent the afternoon with her yesterday. She’s become quite frail, but remains interested in the health-care system and medical reporting. And she still doesn’t suffer fools gladly.