Obituary for Robert L. MacKenzie
Robert L. MacKenzie, one of the several Bob MacKenzies who populated Canadian journalism through the 1960s and ‘70s, died Friday, April 30, in the palliative unit at Hotel Dieu Grace Health Care, Windsor.
Born near Val d’Or, Quebec where his father, a mining engineer, was working, Bob was the youngest in a peripatetic family that moved about Quebec and Ontario as underground projects presented.
The St. Lawrence Seaway project took the family to Cornwall where Bob went directly from high school to his first newspaper job at the Cornwall Standard-Freeholder as photographer, sports reporter and all-round dogsbody. After a couple of years he advanced to telegraph editor at the Northern Daily News in Kirkland Lake where he had spent much of his childhood.
From there he followed a pattern familiar to journalists aspiring to the big time. In his case, a stint at the Sudbury Star was followed by a move to the Montreal Gazette as night city editor. The lure of more senior jobs and wider writing opportunities then took him to Parliamentary Press bureau of The Canadian Press where his assignments ranged from the politics of the day, to nuclear energy and satellite launches with an occasional CFL game or Grey Cup thrown in.
With the 1968 federal election looming, Bob tried his hand at PR with Hopkins Hedlin in Toronto, moving from there to The Globe and Mail. At the time, The Globe’s legendary managing editor Clark Davey described Bob as a “bouncing ball,” but that didn’t keep him from hiring Bob a second time after he returned from spending 6 months with Reuters in London.
The next move was to the Kitchener-Waterloo Record where he returned to reporting and won several Western Ontario Newspaper Awards for conservation and environmental writing as well as facilitating the composing room transition to cold type.
The more stable hours of the afternoon paper there also allowed Bob to begin work on a B.A. in Economics at University of Waterloo. The academic exposure there tempted him into eventually teaching journalism at St Clair College, Windsor from 1980 to 1997 where he regaled a new generation of would-be journalists with his “war” stories. While there he completed his Economics BA and added an MA in Education from Central Michigan University.
Windsor with its easy water access gave Bob the opportunity to take up sailing, and as a member of LaSalle Mariners Yacht club he competed in numerous races and regattas sailing first Elsewhere and then Silverheels II, as well as serving as harbor master for several terms. He also was active in the St. Clair College bridge group, which moved to on-line with the pandemic.
He leaves his wife, Susan, whom he met and married while at The Globe and Mail, becoming the first married couple allowed to remain in the editorial department. He also leaves his two older brothers, Ron of Orillia and George of Niagara Falls and their families.
There will be no funeral or visitation. At Bob’s wish, his body has been donated to the University of Western Ontario for medical research. Arrangements entrusted to Families First, 3260 Dougall Ave., South Windsor, 519-969-5841.
Born near Val d’Or, Quebec where his father, a mining engineer, was working, Bob was the youngest in a peripatetic family that moved about Quebec and Ontario as underground projects presented.
The St. Lawrence Seaway project took the family to Cornwall where Bob went directly from high school to his first newspaper job at the Cornwall Standard-Freeholder as photographer, sports reporter and all-round dogsbody. After a couple of years he advanced to telegraph editor at the Northern Daily News in Kirkland Lake where he had spent much of his childhood.
From there he followed a pattern familiar to journalists aspiring to the big time. In his case, a stint at the Sudbury Star was followed by a move to the Montreal Gazette as night city editor. The lure of more senior jobs and wider writing opportunities then took him to Parliamentary Press bureau of The Canadian Press where his assignments ranged from the politics of the day, to nuclear energy and satellite launches with an occasional CFL game or Grey Cup thrown in.
With the 1968 federal election looming, Bob tried his hand at PR with Hopkins Hedlin in Toronto, moving from there to The Globe and Mail. At the time, The Globe’s legendary managing editor Clark Davey described Bob as a “bouncing ball,” but that didn’t keep him from hiring Bob a second time after he returned from spending 6 months with Reuters in London.
The next move was to the Kitchener-Waterloo Record where he returned to reporting and won several Western Ontario Newspaper Awards for conservation and environmental writing as well as facilitating the composing room transition to cold type.
The more stable hours of the afternoon paper there also allowed Bob to begin work on a B.A. in Economics at University of Waterloo. The academic exposure there tempted him into eventually teaching journalism at St Clair College, Windsor from 1980 to 1997 where he regaled a new generation of would-be journalists with his “war” stories. While there he completed his Economics BA and added an MA in Education from Central Michigan University.
Windsor with its easy water access gave Bob the opportunity to take up sailing, and as a member of LaSalle Mariners Yacht club he competed in numerous races and regattas sailing first Elsewhere and then Silverheels II, as well as serving as harbor master for several terms. He also was active in the St. Clair College bridge group, which moved to on-line with the pandemic.
He leaves his wife, Susan, whom he met and married while at The Globe and Mail, becoming the first married couple allowed to remain in the editorial department. He also leaves his two older brothers, Ron of Orillia and George of Niagara Falls and their families.
There will be no funeral or visitation. At Bob’s wish, his body has been donated to the University of Western Ontario for medical research. Arrangements entrusted to Families First, 3260 Dougall Ave., South Windsor, 519-969-5841.