Veteran farm reporter and former Manitoba Co-operator associate editor Rod Edwards has died following a battle with cancer.

Edwards passed away Jan. 9 at age 72 at Winnipeg's Riverview Health Centre. He worked as a reporter for the Canadian Press news agency and for the Winnipeg Free Press before joining the Co-operator in the mid-1980s.

"Rod was passionate about good journalism," said Bob Hainstock, the Co-operator editor and publisher who hired Edwards. "He was a good newspaperman."

Edwards came across as easygoing and was quick to laugh, but took reporting very seriously, Hainstock said.

Edwards also didn't have any formal journalism training, Hainstock said. Like most reporters of that generation, he learned the trade on the job.

Edwards' family noted in his obituary last week that his life was "full of ups and downs but he rose above it all," supported by a wife -- Georgina, who died in 2006 -- who was "full of love and happiness (and) encouraged him to follow his dreams of writing and travelling the world."

A private family service is to be held for Edwards at a later date.

-- Allan Dawson is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator at Miami, Man. A version of this article appears in the Jan. 17 edition.