Thursday 22 November 2007

Re Warren Gerard

If you believe print media mentors are all older people who have paid their dues, you didn't work in the Globe and Mail newsroom in the 1960s.

The Globe boasted a large gathering of selfless young reporters and editors who were mentors to copy boys and office workers interested in becoming journalists.

Warren Gerard, who died of cancer Tuesday at 70, was among them. He was 23 when hired by the Globe in 1960 and within five years had won a National Newspaper Award.

Busy as newsrooms get, Warren, along with Robert Turnbull, Barry Zwicker, Dave Spurgeon, Geoff Stevens, Jim Knack, Joan Hollobon, Eldon Stonehouse, Jack Marks and others always had time for questions and helpful advice.

They are the selfless people you meet along the rocky road to confidence who can never be thanked enough for their guidance.

We are confident young Toronto Star staffers who shared Warren's company in his latter years are better people for having known him.

2 comments:

  1. Thank You for writing this, he was the best.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ian Watson in Hong Kong says:Bob Turnbull was my dear friend and mentor at the Globe and Mail in the late '60s. His homey residence at 10 Balmy Avenue, Scarborough, was a haven of welcoming peace. My best memory of Bob was when he said to me on the stone one day as I made up his travel pages: "Aye laddie, ye have a fine style, but why not start here." He poured the first 25in of my story into the hell-box!

    ReplyDelete