Knowlton Nash

infobox person


caption=
birth_date=birth date and age|1927|11|18
birth_place=Toronto, Ontario
nationality=flagicon|Canada Canada
known_for=Anchorman for CBC Television news

Cyril Knowlton Nash, O.C., O.Ont. (born November 18, 1927), commonly known as Knowlton Nash, is a journalist, author, and former and long-serving senior anchorman of CBC Television's flagship news program, "The National". He was born in Toronto, Ontario.

Career

As a 12-year old in 1939, Nash was a newspaper boy selling the "Toronto Star" and "Toronto Telegram" at the corner of Bathurst and Eglinton for three cents a copy. [http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1150927810877&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home The Star article] ] Nash began his career working for "The Globe and Mail" in the 1940s before becoming an editor with British United Press in Canada, moving quickly up from night editor at the Toronto bureau in 1947, to bureau chief at Halifax, Vancouver, and then Toronto. In 1951, he moved to Washington, D.C. where he worked as the Director of Information for the International Federation of Agricultural Producers, reporting on international politics as relates to agriculture. For IFAP he travelled regularly to London, Paris, Rome, New York, occasionally to Africa and Latin America, and represented the federation's interests at the United Nations. [http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/personalities/personalities.php?id=118 Canadian Communications Federation biography] ]

After years reporting on the inner circles of Washington politics to IFAP, he started freelance reporting, for CBC television and radio, the "Financial Post", "Maclean's", and daily newspapers across Canada. In 1961 he became CBC's Washington correspondent. In Washington Nash covered major historical events, among them the Cuban missile crisis and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He interviewed five U.S. Presidents, seven Prime Ministers of Canada, four Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, Che Guevera, and other major figures in his time. He was one of the last reporters to interview New York state U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy before his assassination.

He joined the CBC's management as head of news and information programming in 1968, moving back to Toronto, and became anchor of "The National" following the departure of Peter Kent in 1978. During his tenure, the program expanded from 15 minutes to the first segment of an hourlong news package with "The National" being followed by "The Journal", which featured interviews and documentaries.

In 1988, Nash offered to retire from his duties at "The National" in order to keep Peter Mansbridge from accepting an offer to host the morning news at the American network CBS. Nash left his position as CBC News' senior anchor and chief correspondent in 1988, yet remains active in Canadian journalism circles. He hosted various programs on CBC Newsworld in the 1990s, and from 1990 to 2004 was host of the CBC's educational series "News in Review". Knowlton Nash officially retired from the CBC on November 28 1992 - his last official duty was anchoring "The National'.

As of 2008, Nash lives in Toronto with his wife, former CBC personality Lorraine Thomson, and his family.

Honours

Nash was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1989, and a Member of the Order of Ontario in 1998. He received the President's Award of the Radio and Television News Directors' Association in 1990, the John Drainie Award "for distinguished contributions to broadcasting" in 1995, and was inducted to the Canadian News Hall of Fame in 1996. He holds Honourary J.D. degrees from the University of Toronto (1993), Brock University (1995), the University of Regina, (1996), and Loyalist College (1997). In 1992 he was the Max Bell Professor at the University of Regina School of Journalism.

On June 22, 2006, Nash accepted a lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Journalism Foundation. [cite news
url=http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2006/06/23/nash-award.html
title=Nash slams CBC while accepting award
date=June 23, 2006
publisher=CBC News] He prepared a speech which was read by his wife (Nash suffers from Parkinson's Disease), which included harsh words for the CBC, due to its planned simulcast of American network ABC's "", which bumped "The National" back by one hour in Ontario and Quebec on Tuesday nights. The program flopped and was cancelled after two weeks.

References

Bibliography

* "" (McClelland and Stewart, 1984), ISBN 0-7710-6700-3
* "" (Key Porter Books, 1986), ISBN 1-55013-005-6
* "" (McClelland and Stewart, 1987)), ISBN 0-7710-6703-8
* "" (McClelland and Stewart, 1990), ISBN 0-7710-6705-4
* "" (McClelland and Stewart, 1991), ISBN 0-7710-6708-9
* "" (McClelland and Stewart, 1994), ISBN 0-7710-6712-7
* "" (McClelland and Stewart, 1996), ISBN 0-7710-6734-8
* "" (McClelland and Stewart, 1998), ISBN 0-7710-6752-6
* "" (McClelland and Stewart, 2001), ISBN 0-7710-6774-7

External links

* [http://www.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/honours-desc.asp?lang=e&TypeID=orc&id=2555 Order of Canada Citation]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORrzIvru0gw CBC Newsworld - Petrie in Prime interview with Knowlton Nash (3 parts)]