Fred has had a full career as a CBC TV host and reporter. He has written countless articles for many renowned publications such as The Economist, The Globe and Mail, BusinessWeek and many more, as well as more than 2000 obituaries. He is also a successfully published author and ghostwriter. His current projects include writing and co-authoring books, as well as lending his talents as a speaker and interviewer for webcasts.
Lyman Potts compiled a huge catalogue of Canadian content for radio stations. He did it not because some government edict told him to, but because he wanted to. Mr. Potts, who has died at 102, built the foundations for the Canadian music industry by creating domestic content for radio stations, recording bands and singers in […]
Although he had little formal education, Harry Leslie Smith, who died on Wednesday at the age of 95, became famous for writing and speaking eloquently about Britain’s National Health Service and the human toll of poverty. His own impoverished childhood in Yorkshire and the death of his sister Marion from tuberculosis at the age of […]
Eric Murray was the greatest Canadian bridge player of the 20th century, according to his bridge partner, many of his opponents and the Canadian Bridge Federation, which describes him as ”the greatest Canadian bridge player ever.” Mr. Murray, who died last month at the age of 89, dominated bridge tournaments in this country for four […]
Don Laubman, who died in Red Deer, Alta., on June 20 at the age of 96, was one of the top air aces of the Second World War. Remarkably, he shot down 15 German aircraft, even though he only arrived in England in 1942, three years after the start of the war. He was the […]
When her husband’s first big deal was hanging in the balance, Jacqueline Desmarais, who died this month at the age of 89, said to him: “Don’t worry, Paul, if it doesn’t work out, I can go back to nursing.” Her husband told the story at her 80th birthday party. “They were the original power couple, […]
Francess Halpenny, who died on Christmas Day at the age of 98, was a powerhouse in the world of letters in Canada. She was a top editor with the University of Toronto Press at a time when the esteemed publishing house was expanding its international reputation; she was editor of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, […]
Grant Munro, who has died at the age of 94, both starred in and did animation for Neighbours, a National Film Board short that won the Academy Award for best documentary in 1953. Neighbours is a Cold War parody that opens with two men sitting in lawn chairs. They are smoking pipes and share a […]
October is the cruellest of months for stock markets. Thirty years ago, there was the stock market crash of 1987, a one-day drop of 22.6 per cent on October 19. That was somewhat unique, since a recession did not accompany it; the cause was program trading – computers tricked into selling all at once. Stock […]
We’re not talking about Bill Gates type riches, just a comfortable cushion to live on if you fall on hard times or stop working. There is a two-word solution: Compound interest. Compound interest is when you earn interest on your interest. Say you have $500 in a bond or stock and it pays you 5 […]
Most viewers never knew his name, but Arnold Amber, who died in Toronto on Labour Day at the age of 77, was the brains behind TV programs that millions of Canadians watched. For a decade and a half, he was the man in charge of special news broadcasts at the CBC, covering elections, leadership conventions, […]
Imagine you're 23 years old, the low man on the newsroom totem pole, and they are about to send the police reporter, the oldest guy in the room, to cover
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Marvelle Koffler, who died on Jan. 14 at age 90, was a prominent patron of the arts in Toronto as well as being an active supporter of medical research. Along with her husband, Shoppers Drug Mart founder Murray Koffler, she helped establish the Toronto Outdoor Art Festival and the Koffler Centre of the Arts. A […]
Jeremy Reitman, who has died at the age of 74, was the chairman and CEO of Reitmans, the Canada-wide retail chain his grandparents started in 1926. He and his brother, Stephen Reitman, ran the company together for almost 50 years. Reitmans was one of the survivors of the “retail apocalypse” brought on by online competition. […]
