Cyril Knowlton Nash (November 18, 1927 – May 24, 2014) was a Canadian journalist, author and news anchor. He was senior anchor of CBC Television's flagship news program, The National from 1978 until his retirement in 1988. He began his career in journalism by selling newspapers on the streets of Toronto during World War II. Before age 20, he was a professional journalist for British United Press (BUP). After some time as a freelance foreign correspondent, he became the CBC's Washington correspondent during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, also covering stories in South and Central America and Vietnam. He moved back to Toronto in 1968 to join management as head of CBC's news and information programming, then stepped back in front of the camera in 1978 as anchor of CBC's late evening news program, The National. He stepped down from that position in 1988 to make way for Peter Mansbridge. Nash wrote several books about Canadian journalism and television, including his own memoirs as a foreign correspondent.

Early life

Nash was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on November 18, 1927, and named "Cyril" after his father, a racetrack betting manager. The young boy disliked being called "Cyril Junior" and, at age five, asked his parents to instead call him by his middle name, Knowlton. From an early age, Nash was fascinated with the world of journalism: by age 8, he was writing his own news sheet and selling advertising space to local merchants in exchange for candy. By age nine he was writing letters to the editors of Toronto newspapers, and by age 10 he was operating a newsstand.

Career

In his early teens, Nash reported on weekly high school sports for The Globe and Mail. In 1944, he dropped out of high school to become editor of Canadian High News, a small weekly tabloid distributed to most high schools in southern Ontario. His fellow staff members included Keith Davey and Robert McMichael.

The following year, he spent some time editing a couple of crime magazines, then reported for a Toronto neighbourhood newspaper for a few months. Nash and some former staff members from Canadian High News then bought up two neighbourhood newspapers, but with little advertising revenue, both papers quickly ran out of money and went out of business. Nash briefly tried his hand at writing for pulp magazines True Confessions and True Crime.

Wire service reporter

Nash briefly attended the University of Toronto but in 1947, at age 19, he was hired as night editor in the Toronto office of BUP, a wire news service affiliated with United Press. Nash subsequently wrote eight more books about his career, journalism, politics and Canadian broadcasting including Microphone Wars: A History of Triumph and Betrayal at the CBC, which traced the history of public broadcasting in Canada from its beginnings in the 1930s to the mid-1990s, chronicling the inside struggles at the CBC as programmers fought against the frequent short-sightedness of corporate executives while both sides coped with the hostility of federal politicians who refused to provide adequate, long-term funding. Harry J. Boyle, a veteran CBC insider and one-time chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), summed the book up this way: "While it exposes corporate stupidities, political meddling and boozing executives, it vigorously endorses public broadcasting."

Nash's books continued to garner favourable reviews, with critics often mentioning his in-depth research and personal knowledge of events and notable people. Geoffrey Stevens wrote of Kennedy And Diefenbaker: Fear And Loathing Across The Undefended Border: "It is well researched, with a clear, tight focus. It takes the reader inside the councils of state to show how personal relations—especially hatred—at the highest levels can influence dealings between nations."

Retirement

In 1988, Nash offered to retire from his duties at The National in order to keep Peter Mansbridge from moving to the morning news at American network CBS. When Mansbridge accepted Nash's offer and stayed at CBC, Nash stepped down as chief correspondent, although he continued to anchor The National on Saturday evenings and filled in as weekday anchor when Mansbridge was on assignment or on vacation. Nash fully retired from CBC News after anchoring The National on November 28, 1992.

After retirement from news-reading and reporting, Nash continued to host various programs on CBC Newsworld for several years. From 1990 to 2004, he was also host of the CBC's educational series News in Review.

Personal life

Nash was married four times, although his final marriage, to CBC personality Lorraine Thomson, lasted for 32 years. Nash blamed the dissolution of previous marriages on his peripatetic life as a journalist and his over-dedication to his work.

Nash was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2002 but remained sanguine about the diagnosis, saying that many other people faced much greater challenges. "I can argue that I can get a couple of extra strokes in my golf game", he told the Toronto Star in 2006.

Honours

  • Officer of the Order of Canada (1989)
  • Member of the Order of Ontario (1998)
  • Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal (2002)
  • Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012)
  • President's Award of the Radio-Television News Directors Association (1990)
  • John Drainie Award "for distinguished contributions to broadcasting" (1995)
  • Inducted into the Canadian News Hall of Fame (1996)
  • Honorary Juris Doctor degrees from the University of Toronto (1993), Brock University (1995), the University of Regina, (1996), Loyalist College (1997) and York University (2005).
  • Max Bell Professor at the University of Regina School of Journalism in 1992
  • Lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Journalism Foundation (2006)
  • Mentioned in Stan Rogers' 1981 song Working Joe ("Running from the crack of dawn 'til Knowlton reads the news...")

Bibliography

  • Prime Time at Ten: Behind-the-Camera Battles of Canadian TV Journalism (McClelland and Stewart, 1987),
  • Kennedy and Diefenbaker: Fear and Loathing across the Undefended Border (McClelland and Stewart, 1990),
  • Visions of Canada: Searching for Our Future (McClelland and Stewart, 1991),
  • The Microphone Wars: A History of Triumph and Betrayal at the CBC (McClelland and Stewart, 1994),
  • Cue the Elephant!: Backstage Tales at the CBC (McClelland and Stewart, 1996),
  • Trivia Pursuit: How Showbiz Values are Corrupting the News (McClelland and Stewart, 1998),
  • Swashbucklers: The Story of Canada's Battling Broadcasters (McClelland and Stewart, 2001),

Notes

References

  • Order of Canada Citation