GZOWSKI o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-01-21 published
Douglas MARSHALL,
Journalist 1937-2005
Toronto editor and writer was a co-founder of the journal Books
In Canada and a sounding board for Margaret Atwood, Robert Fulford
and Margaret Laurence
By Allison
LAWLOR,
Special to The Globe and Mail, Friday, January
21, 2005 - Page S7
Doug MARSHALL was a writer and editor who cut his teeth in the
newspaper business in the 1950s while working on a university
paper with the likes of broadcaster Peter
GZOWSKI. As an undergraduate
at the University of Toronto, Mr.
MARSHALL worked on The Varsity
with the late Mr.
GZOWSKI, who was then the paper's editor, and
long-time Globe reporter John
GRAY/GREY.
Considered one of its star
writers, Mr.
MARSHALL eventually became editor of the student
newspaper in 1958-59 and embarked on his lifelong career in the
business.
"He loved the English language," said Lynda
HURST, a columnist
at the Toronto Star, where Mr.
MARSHALL spent 20 years of his
career. "He was obsessed with its proper use in newspapers."
After graduation, Mr.
MARSHALL headed back to England, where
he had spent much of his childhood. Based in London, he worked
for several years as a reporter for The Canadian Press. On his
return to Canada, he became a staff writer at Maclean's, which
was then a monthly magazine. In 1971, he co-founded the monthly
review journal Books In Canada with the late Val Clery. It got
started after the two men, along with a couple of others, contributed
$55 each. With the help of a $250 grant from the Ontario government,
they set out to fill a void in the Canadian book world.
Getting the magazine off the ground didn't happen without a few
rocky moments. Readers, for instance, didn't see the first issue
dated May, 1971, until a month later. When Mr. Clery left less
than two years after it started, Mr.
MARSHALL took over and was
said to have injected his own cultural nationalism into the magazine.
"We weren't out necessarily to take an adversary position but
to give attention to Canadian books," he told the Toronto Star
in a 1986 interview.
"Our philosophical position was clear, which was to judge Canadian
books on the highest possible standards. Good, professionally
written reviews create a climate for good literature. I think
we provided one of the tools that kept alive the renaissance
of Canadian literature, with the result that Canada now has at
least a half-dozen world-class writers."
Under Mr. MARSHALL,
Books In
Canada provided a forum for such
authors and critics as Margaret Atwood, Robert Fulford, Margaret
Laurence and Pierre
BERTON. It also served as a training ground
for up-and-coming writers.
"He loved to read," Mr.
GRAY/GREY said. "He always had a book shoved
into his jacket pocket."
Born not long before the Second World War, Mr.
MARSHALL was the
eldest of three children to Porte and Marion
MARSHALL.
His father,
a family doctor in Colbourne, Ontario, was in England during
the war; his job was to check on the health status of those wishing
to immigrate to Canada. After the war, he brought his family
to England to join him. Young Douglas later returned to Canada
to attend the University of Toronto.
During his university years, his interest in journalism is said
to have been sparked after he noticed that the students who most
liked to drink happened to be the same ones who worked at the
newspaper. "He began life when the newspaper business was a hard-drinking
business and maintained the tradition," Mr.
GRAY/GREY said.
"There was nothing he liked more than a feisty debate in the
pub," said Sandra
MARTIN, a Globe and Mail writer who worked
with Mr. MARSHALL at Books In Canada.
In the early 1980s, Mr.
MARSHALL joined the Toronto Star and
remained there until his retirement two years ago. During his
five years as the paper's entertainment editor, he is credited
for having created the innovative What's On section. Departing
from traditional newspaper design, the new section incorporated
a magazine style. He later worked as the paper's science and
environment editor.
"He could be difficult to work for," said Toronto Star editorial
columnist Bob
HEPBURN. "It would drive him nuts if he saw typos
or mistakes in the paper."
Outside of the newspaper world, Mr.
MARSHALL was a founding member
of the Crime Writers of Canada and the Periodical Writers Association
of Canada, and author of the crime fiction novel A Very Palpable
Hit. He was at work on a mystery novel set in England.
Patrick
Oliver
Douglas
MARSHALL was born on November 25, 1937,
in Cobourg, Ontario He died of liver disease at St. Michael's
Hospital in Toronto on Wednesday. He was 67. He is survived by
his wife, Sarah
MURDOCH, and
by Barnaby and Benjamin, sons from
an earlier marriage to Deborah
MARSHALL.
Funeral arrangements
have not been finalized.
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GZOWSKI o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-02-09 published
Harry J. BOYLE
By John David
HAMILTON,
Wednesday,
February 9, 2005 - Page S9
John David
HAMILTON of Keswick, Ontario, writes about Harry J.
BOYLE, whose obituary ran on January 24.
I worked with Harry for many years in radio and television and
saw close up his vision and great contribution to the media.
One day in 1961, he called me into his office and showed me a
short inside-page story in The New York Times that said president
John Kennedy was increasing the number of military advisers in
Vietnam from 7,000 to 16,000. I said: "So what?" Harry said,
"If this isn't stopped, it will usher in one of the worst wars
in history." So I asked him what we were expected to do about
it? He told me to head up a documentary project to be called
The Conscience of Manitoba For a year, a group of us dug into
the consciences of politicians, philosophers, theologians, authors
and nations, and the programs won many award.
Harry's vision was like that. Among some of his other lesser-known
achievements was to "invent" daytime radio programming when he
hired Bruno
GERUSSI to talk to housewives in the morning. Bruno
set the pattern for the late Peter
GZOWSKI, and his successor,
Shelagh ROGERS.
He also invented a new type of religious programming called Concern
with Peter Meggs, a former Anglican minister, as host. The program
continues on radio as Tapestry and is a civilized analysis and
discussion of many religions and beliefs. Project, his major
documentary series for radio, dug into all kinds of unusual areas
from taking the 1960s temperatures of America and Canada to concerts
of the Red Army Chorus and studies of the changing modern woman.
These programs, along with work done on Assignment, revolutionized
the techniques of radio and had a great influence on television
when it began using videotape. Earlier, he had also introduced
the use of portable reel-to-reel tape recorders.
His freelancers, proudly calling ourselves Boyle's Irregulars,
were cordially hated by bureaucracies, without and within the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
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GZOWSKI o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-08-04 published
HENRICKSEN,
Eleanor▼
Ward▼ (née
SOUTHIN)
On August 1, 2005, in her eighty-third year. Norie is survived
by her husband of sixty-two years, Chris; her two sisters, Madam
Justice Mary
SOUTHIN and Adrienne
DRUMMOND-
HAY; and her three
daughters, Martha
LABADIE,
Susan▼
FISHER (Gordon,) and Mary
HENRICKSEN
(Peter C. GZOWSKI.)
She▼ leaves behind loving grandchildren Paul
CRAIG (Deidre), Chris
CRAIG, Nicholas
FISHER, and Lulu
GZOWSKI,
and great-grand_son, Kaiden
CRAIG.
She▼ was predeceased by her
son, John. No service or flowers by request.
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GZOWSKI o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-08-05 published
HENRICKSEN,
Eleanor▲
Ward▲ (née
SOUTHIN)
On August 1, 2005, in her eighty-third year. Norie is survived
by her husband of sixty-two years, Chris; her two sisters, Madam
Justice Mary
SOUTHIN and Adrienne
DRUMMOND-
HAY; and her three
daughters, Martha
LABADIE,
Susan▲
FISHER (Gordon,) and Mary
HENRICKSEN
(Peter C. GZOWSKI.)
She▲ leaves behind loving grandchildren Paul
CRAIG (Deidre), Chris
CRAIG, Nicholas
FISHER, and Lulu
GZOWSKI,
and great-grand_son, Kaiden
CRAIG.
She▲ was predeceased by her
son, John. No service or flowers by request.
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GZOWSKI o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-08-13 published
I Remember -- Peter
JENNINGS
By Peter DESBARATS,
Saturday,
August 13, 2005, Page S11
Most of the public recollections of Peter
JENNINGS have cited
his generosity, particularly when it came to other journalists.
I experienced an outstanding example of this.
It was near the end of the 1980s. I had been the journalism dean
at the University of Western Ontario since 1981. A large part
of this job, and similar positions in academia, was raising money.
Someone came up with a brilliant idea -- we would gather together
a dozen of the top Canadian journalists from home and abroad
for a public celebration of their talent. It would be truly a
"Gathering of the Giants."
From the outset it was evident that we would need the support
of the "giant of giants," Peter
JENNINGS.
Clearly, he had achieved
that status among Canadian journalists working in Canada, in
the United States and elsewhere. He was in a class by himself.
So I flew to New York to have lunch with him. This had been surprisingly
easy to arrange, despite the fact that our paths had not previously
crossed. There is a camaraderie among journalists that I had
experienced on assignment in many countries and Peter was a prime
example of this.
We enjoyed an unpretentious lunch in the ABC network's cafeteria
and chatted about mutual Friends before I made my pitch. After
a minimum of discussion he agreed to be one of our giants. The
rest soon followed: the two other Peters,
MANSBRIDGE and
GZOWSKI
the two Barbaras,
FRUM and
AMIEL;
Morley
Safer from 60 Minutes,
Lloyd ROBERSTON of CTV, Allan
FOTHERINGHAM,
Sydney
Gruson of
The
New
York Times, Jeffrey
SIMPSON of The Globe and Mail, Henry
CHAMP of CTV, Robert McNeil of
PBS and Richard
GWYN of the Toronto
Star, for a total of 13.
Months later, after a tremendous amount of work by my committee
in Toronto, we were approaching the big night at Toronto's Metro
Convention Centre. There had been a few minor bumps along the
way, but Peter
JENNINGS was still on board. By this time I had
learned to appreciate how unusual this was.
Peter gave me to understand that ABC wasn't particularly keen
on anything that highlighted his Canadian background and citizenship.
I also got the impression that his prominent role in this fundraiser
was unusual and probably would not have been undertaken for a
journalism school in the United States.
In the final weeks I began to worry about some major news event
conflicting with our gathering and taking Peter to some far-flung
but newsworthy corner of the world. He couldn't guarantee that
this wouldn't happen but simply repeated that he would make every
effort to attend.
My nightmare came true when the destruction of the Berlin Wall
in November, 1989, unleashed a whole series of European events.
I can't remember exactly which one conflicted with our gathering,
only that it was significant enough to make me almost abandon
hope. But Peter arrived on schedule in a private plane from New
York, stopping for our event in Toronto before flying immediately
that night to some European capital or other.
I watched him on the screen the following night in amazement,
not so much for his profound professionalism but for his amazing
Friendship and generosity.
But there's more. After our Oscar-type celebration of the 13
giants on the convention centre's main stage -- complete with
video highlights of their careers and mini-interviews by 13 awestruck
journalism students -- and after a lavish buffet supper ("food
from the news capitals of the world"), the entertainment consisted
of a mock newscast anchored by Peter
JENNINGS,
Lloyd
ROBERTSON
and Peter MANSBRIDGE.
The rest of the 13 were in a nearby studio
supposedly reporting from Washington, London, Moscow and other
impressive datelines.
Peter gave my script for this tomfoolery his full attention,
reading it carefully beforehand, underlining certain parts and
rehearsing under his breath. The other two anchors quickly rose
to the challenge, providing our audience with a hilarious display
of competitive news delivery as they worked shamelessly to milk
laughs from their appreciative audience.
The only restriction placed by Peter on this unique performance
was that no one in the control room would make an unauthorized
pirate tape of it. And as far as I know, no one did, because
I'm sure it would have turned up by now.
We raised about $80,000 for the journalism school that night
and I always felt that I had never thanked him properly. So thanks,
Peter. You stood for everything that was thoughtful, professional
and generous about journalism at its best.
Peter DESBARATS, a former Global television anchor, was dean
of the graduate journalism program at the University of Western
Ontario from 1981 to 1996.
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GZOWSKI o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-11-03 published
James Frederick
HICKLING
By Sara HICKLING,
Thursday,
November 3, 2005, Page A24
Psychologist, management consultant. Born February 20, 1921,
in Welland, Ontario Died May 21 in Toronto of natural causes,
aged 84.
Who would have thought that a poor boy from Depression-era Toronto
would have such an adventurous life? Jim was a self-made man,
a pioneer in his work and an unabashed lover of life. If you
had told him when he was young that he would not only see the
world, but also live in such far-away places as Africa and Indonesia,
it would have been beyond his wildest dreams.
Jim grew up in east-end Toronto long before it became fashionable
Riverdale. His father died when he was 7 and left his mother
and two siblings to soldier on during the Depression. To make
ends meet, my grandmother ran a boarding house in their small
home on Logan Avenue. Some of my father's earliest memories were
of sharing the dinner table with characters as diverse as an
evangelical minister and a founding member of the Co-operative
Commonwealth Federation. It made for lively dinner conversation
and gave my father a broad view of the world that stayed with
him forever.
He was by all accounts an enterprising young boy who managed
multiple paper routes and delegated delivery to his somewhat
reluctant younger brother. This was a sign of things to come,
as Jim was always a big-picture person who delegated the detail
whenever possible.
Education was my grandmother's mantra and in 1939, aided by a
church scholarship, my father entered Victoria College at the
University of Toronto. There he met my mother, then Ruth E.
SMITH,
whom he described as the smartest and most beautiful girl in
the class. Somehow he managed to persuade her to pay for their
first date to a tea dance and they were together for the next
60 years until her death in 1999.
In 1944, Jim joined the Irish Regiment of Canada as an infantry
officer. He served in the Italian campaign and was in the Netherlands
on the day the war ended. Most of his war stories involved card
games where drunken soldiers had "lost their shirts" but occasionally
you could tell that he had seen many young men die around him
and that the experience had been profound.
After the war, Jim considered every day "a bonus." He completed
his master's degree in psychology and set up his own career placement
business in 1952. At the time, the field of industrial psychology
and executive placement was virtually unknown in Canada. His
early work involved psychological profiles and testing to match
individuals to a suitable career. A few years ago, I was surprised
to hear a discussion on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio
between Peter
GZOWSKI and Robert
FULFORD about how they had been
tested or "Hickled," as they called it, by my father in their
early days at publisher Maclean Hunter Ltd.
Jim went on to set up many international consulting companies
that operated in countries throughout the developing world. He
consulted in Malaysia, Nigeria, Indonesia, Burma (now Myanmar),
Thailand and Britain, just to name a few. His goal was to see
every country on Earth and at the age of 80, after recovering
from a serious operation, he went by himself to most of the places
he had never seen.
At home, Jim was surrounded by women: my mom and his three daughters.
Our mother was his muse and no important decision was ever made
without her advice. My Dad loved to quote a line from Patrick
Dennis's Auntie Mame that summarized his view of the world: "Life
is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death."
Jim was never starving or even hungry where life was concerned.
He filled his 84-plus years with more experiences than most people
will ever know. His zest for life is a lesson to us all.
Sara is Jim's daughter.
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GZOWSKI o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-02-11 published
Sir Casimir
GZOWSKI: A great engineer
Built roads, canals, bridges and railways
By Sharda PRASHAD,
Staff
Reporter
This is the first in a regular series on the stories behind statues
and sculptures in the Greater Toronto Area.
Before Peter, there was Casimir.
A drive along the lakeshore will take you to his park. His bust
overlooks the city. Although Canadians are more apt to know his
great-great grand_son, Canadian broadcaster extraordinaire Peter
GZOWSKI, Sir Casimir Stanislaus
GZOWSKI is a great Canadian in
his own right.
Knighted by Queen Victoria in 1890,
GZOWSKI trained as a lawyer
but is best known as one of the country's greatest engineers.
The son of a Polish count,
GZOWSKI built the Grand Trunk Railway
that runs from Toronto to Sarnia, Yonge St. from Toronto to Lake
Simcoe, and the International Bridge that connects Fort Erie
and Buffalo. He also founded the Ontario Jockey Club and Wycliffe
College and co-founded the Toronto Stock Exchange. He was president
of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers; the Gzowski Medal
annually recognizes outstanding written contributions to engineering.
He was the first chairman of the Niagara Parks Commission, which
was responsible for the park system on the Falls' Canadian side.
Born to Polish nobility in 1813 in St. Petersburg,
GZOWSKI was
the eldest of eight children. He was interned in an Austrian
prison and then exiled to the U.S. in 1833 for his role in the
Polish revolt against the Russians.
GZOWSKI arrived in Massachusetts,
learned English -- his sixth language -- and earned his law degree
in 1837. But
GZOWSKI quickly decided he favoured the mechanics
of engineering to the legalese of law. His reputation as an engineer
flourished as he built a name for himself working on canals and
public works projects. He became a U.S. citizen and married a
debutante from Erie, Pennsylvania. His first trip to Canada was
in 1841, a business trip to bid on a contract involving the Welland
Canal.
On that trip, governor general Sir Charles
BAGOT, who knew
GZOWSKI's
father from St. Petersburg, appointed 29-year-old
GZOWSKI to
the Department of Public Works.
GZOWSKI worked to improve waterways
and canals and build roads, bridges and harbours. Not content
to serve only as a civil servant, he established Gzowski and
Co. to build the era's longest railway. The Grand Trunk ran from
Rivière-du-Loup on the St. Lawrence to Sarnia on Lake Huron.
By the 1860s,
GZOWSKI was one of Toronto's wealthiest residents,
living here with his wife and eight children. U.S.-Canadian border
issues spurred by the American Civil War re-ignited his interest
in the military. From the 1870s until he died, he sent Canadian
teams to England to compete in militia rifle training.
In 1879 he was named an aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria, and was
knighted in 1890 for his military and engineering services.
GZOWSKI died in 1898.
His great-great grand_son carried on the family tradition of Canadian
greatness.
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