McDONALD, G. Campbell - March 14, 1921 - September 6, 2019
After an exuberant life lasting 98 years, Cam McDonald has signed off.
A self-described optimist, paper-hoarder and coffee-lover, he excelled in the communications arts as a journalist, broadcaster, innovator and mentor.
In his wake (no pun intended, but he loved puns) he leaves Mary Pat and Dennis, Tony and Lynda, Julie and Bill, Blair and Jen (Luke, Sadie and James), and his dear friend Corinna.
His life was immeasurably enriched by his 57-year marriage to Sue, who died in 2002.
And his greatest sorrow was the death of his son, Capt. Kenneth McDonald, Canadian Navy helicopter pilot, in 1974.
Cam was a man of many careers: a soldier (WWII, RCA 1940-45), weekly newspaper editor, radio news director, TV anchor, and communications coordinator for both Western University and the Ontario government.
He was especially proud to have been the founding chairman of the Ontario Advertising Review Board, a founding director of the Native News Network of Canada (NNNC), and in retirement an adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Journalism, Western.
Born in Granby, Quebec, Cam spent most of his life in Ontario – first in Ottawa at CFRA, then in London at Western, and finally in Toronto at Queen's Park. He was a published poet at 12 ("A Schoolboy's Dreams" in the Granby Leader Mail.)
At 19, he memorized the eye chart to be able to enlist in the army, since a hockey injury forced him to wear glasses. He cried at his children's graduations and weddings.
He met the Pope (and arranged a good deal of the visit) when John Paul II came to Toronto in 1984. He loved newspapers and the written word, and was a crack Globe and Mail crossword puzzle solver (using the cryptic clues). Cam had, by his own admission, a fulfilling life.
And now like the Cheshire cat, it's his bright smile that remains. –30–
Funeral Mass will be held on Thursday, October 17, 2019 at 11 a.m. at St. Gabriel's Passionist Parish, 670 Sheppard Avenue East, North York, Ontario.
Thank you for donations in Cam's memory to Cystic Fibrosis Canada (www.cysticfibrosis.ca).
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