Neville Gilfoy: A Man of Vision and Progress

We are all used to hearing the drama, the negativity and the sensationalism that’s generated in the world of content today. But It really takes something to move to a higher ground and look for solutions, inspiration, and the high road in life.

When the world goes low, it takes a great character to go high. It takes courage, strength, and determination. There’s a handful of people who can do that. Those people are my hero’s. 

Creating content that’s going to move a business forward, enhance lives, shape thoughts in sustainable directions, and celebrate our entrepreneurial spirit, is no easy task. Yet Neville Gilfoy did exactly that for over 40 years of publishing in Nova Scotia.

Recently we lost Neville to Cancer and it’s so sad to see him go. It really bothers me that a person can acquire so much knowledge and wisdom and then it’s gone – just like that. All we can hope for it that it lives on in his family and the people he touched along his life’s journey. He will be missed undoubtedly.

Neville said, “Publishing a magazine that has had such a positive impact on the Atlantic region is an accomplishment that I am very proud of. Progress has a purpose and a mission and its audience is impacted by that.”

 When we have people who stand up and give their entire lives to support an entrepreneurial revolution, believing it will build our economy and forward prosperity, that’s what I call true leadership.

Neville was the visionary behind several magazines, including Atlantic Insight, Eastern Woods and Waters, and the very established Progress Magazine. He served his community by participating as a CPPA/CMPA board member from 1979 to 1987, with the Atlantic Provinces Chamber of Commerce, and as chair of the board of the Greater Halifax Partnership. 

For 15 years he taught at the Banff Publishing Workshop supporting others in the publishing field. He was a mentor and a guide. He believed fully in the power of responsible and positive communication and it’s ability to affect change. He received the Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in 2006, the highest honour that can be bestowed by the National Magazine Awards Foundation. Neville presented at hundreds of seminars and conferences, and in 1999 he launched Face to Face, which quickly became one of the most remarkable entrepreneurial conferences produced by any magazine in North America. It was a hit!

Neville gave everything he had and all of who he was, to the publishing industry. He knew the fabric of life was sewn into a network of communication. He could see that when we publish responsibly, inspiring content that touches, moves and motivates others – it’s like planting seeds for a prosperous future. Few see it and even fewer act on it – but Neville did! 

Thank you, Neville, from all of us – for what you have done for Atlantic Canada. We are so fortunate to have had you with us for as long as we did. And thank you for supporting our entrepreneurs, our communities and our people – the way that only you knew how. Take good care on the other side.