1924 - 1991 (67 years)
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Name |
Donald George Maclean Cameron |
Birth |
1924 |
Gender |
Male |
Death |
1991 |
Person ID |
I158280 |
My Genealogy |
Last Modified |
17 Nov 2020 |
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Notes |
- From The Toronto Star. Wednesday, September 18, 1991
OBITUARIES
TV's Don Cameron was a 'real newsman'
When people turn on the television news, they may not realize it but theyare watching a testimony to Don Cameron's life.
Hailed as dean of Canadian television journalist, a mentor and lighteningrod who attracted some of the greatest names in TV news to his side, Mr.Cameron died yesterday at the age of 66, after a lengthy battle withcancer.
"There are very few real newsmen," CTV's Sandie Rinaldo said. Don Cameronwas a real newsman.
Rinaldo who got her foot in the door at CTV as Mr. Cameron's secretary,described him as "dean of Canadian television journalist".
The Cornwall native graduated from the University of Toronto beforeheading back home to work for the Standard Freeholder and begin a careerthat would take him around the world.
He worked at a series of newspapers before his five years at NBC News inNew York.
He returned to Canada in 1959 as a CBC reporter, where during the next 13years he helped turn CBC into a formidable news gathering operation, hisefforts highlighted by shows like Newsmagazine.
As a correspondent and producer he covered the height of the Vietnam war,the US civil rights movement and conflicts in the Middle East.
Mr. Cameron headed to CTV to produce the network's flagship publicaffairs program W-5 in 1972. Within four years he was namedvice-president of CTV's network news and current affairs program, afterhelping create Canada AM.
"He invented many of the news-covering techniques we still use today andhelped to develop some of this country's finest reporters andcorrespondents," Tim Kotcheff, Mr Cameron's successor at CTV, said in astatement.
"He was a source of inspiration. A mentor and guiding light to many ofus."
He was swashbuckler," ABC News anchor Peter Jennings, a Canadian, saidfrom New York. "I think what I admired about him most was hisdetermination."
There's perhaps no better example of that determination than in 1983,when Mr. Cameron, then CTV's vice-president and recovering from a heartattack, ventured into war-torn Lebanon to find missing correspondentClark Todd.
Todd was found dead, and Mr. Cameron was admitted to hospital to recoverfrom exhaustion on his return to London, England.
Mr. Cameron showed the same courage as he battled cancerRRRR.
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