Canadians who died in 2008 include household names and those behind the stage
Published Monday December 29th, 2008
Some were household names.
Ted Rogers built Canada's largest wireless, cable and media company, put his family name on sports arenas, phones and trucks, and in the process changed the way Canadians communicate.
Others worked behind the stage.
Literary editor Robert Weaver was called the "godfather of Canadian literature" for his role in promoting the careers of Alice Munro, Timothy Findley, Mordecai Richler, Margaret Atwood and Leonard Cohen.
Some lived long lives of achievement.
Thomas Bata began building his huge shoemaking empire at age 18 and at 93, when he died, still carried a business card describing himself as Bata's "chief shoe salesman."
Others were gone before realizing their full potential.
Vancouver Canucks defenceman Luc Bourdon played a key role in Canada's gold-winning teams at the 2006 and 2007 world junior hockey championships. But his promising career ended in a motorcycle accident on a highway in northeastern New Brunswick at age 21.
From business leaders to artists, athletes to politicians, here is a look at some of the notable Canadians who died in 2008:
January
Milt Dunnell, Toronto Star legend and Hall of Fame journalist known for his deft turn of phrase and encyclopedic breadth of experience, 102.
Pam Barrett, the feisty New Democrat who spent 10 years in the Alberta legislature, 54.
Allan McEachern, B.C.'s top judge, chancellor of the University of B.C. and president and commissioner of the Canadian Football League, 81.
Dusty Cohl, credited with taking the Toronto International Film Festival to an international level, 78.
Robert Weaver, anthologist, broadcaster and literary editor who helped boost the careers of many writers, 87.
Robert Lemieux, Quebec lawyer who represented numerous members of the Front de liberation du Quebec following the 1970 October Crisis, 66.
February
Barry Morse, actor-director best known as the police detective in constant pursuit of Dr. Richard Kimble in the TV series "The Fugitive," 89.
Willie P. Bennett, Canadian folk music legend who won a Juno in 1999 for his album "Heartstrings," 56.
Janis Spence, playwright, director and performer who played a vital part in the development of Newfoundland theatre, 61.
Elizabeth Mawson, who became synonymous with the role of Marilla Cuthbert in the long-running Prince Edward Island stage production of "Anne of Green Gables," 81.
March
Jeff Healey, rock, blues and jazz musician who won a Juno in 1990 for entertainer of the year, 41, after a battle with cancer that robbed him of his sight when he was a baby.
Donald C. MacDonald, longtime leader of the CCF and the New Democratic Party in Ontario, 94.
Simon Reisman, Canada's chief free-trade negotiator during talks with the United States in the late 1980s, 88.
Geoffrey Pearson, Canadian ambassador to the Soviet Union and envoy to the United Nations who inherited his father Prime Minister Lester Pearson's fascination with international affairs and dedication to peace, 80.
Haydn Llewellyn Davies, Welsh-born Canadian artist whose large wood and steel sculptures stand outside public buildings in several Canadian cities, 86.
George Gross, founding sports editor of the Toronto Sun and considered by many a legend in the sports journalism field, 85.
April
Beryl Plumptre, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's anti-inflation watchdog, 99.
Erica Rutherford, artist, actor, filmmaker, farmer, teacher, writer, whose work is in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Arts Council of Great Britain.
Henry Brant, Montreal-born composer who developed the concept of spatial music, 94.
Ed Chynoweth, president of the Western Hockey League from 1972-1995, 66.
May
Irvine Robbins, Canadian-born visionary who helped bring rocky road, pralines and cream and other exotic ice-cream concoctions to almost every corner of Canada and the United States, 90.
Arthur Kroeger, known as the "dean of deputy ministers" whose career spanned six prime ministers and included the reformation of the Crow's Nest Pass freight rate that allowed Canada's railways to survive, 75.
Jack Duffy, actor and singer best known for playing charades on the popular 1970s TV comedy show Party Game, 81.
Luc Bourdon, Vancouver Canucks defenceman who was on the gold-winning 2006 and 2007 world junior teams, killed near Shippagan, N.B., in a motorcycle accident, 21.
Jean-Louis Cormier of Breau Village, N.B., well-known in the Maritimes as wrestler Rudy Kay during TV's early days.
Howard Dill of Windsor, N.S., whose prize-winning giant pumpkins impressed many, including domestic maven Martha Stewart, 73.
John Rutsey, original drummer and co-founding member of the seminal rock band Rush, 55.
June 2008
Dr. Sheela Basrur, a trusted source of information through the 2003 SARS crisis as the medical officer of health for the city of Toronto, 51.
Alf Coward, Nova Scotia-born musician whose TV show was the first CBC variety show aired in the Maritimes.
James Reaney, Governor General's Award-winning poet, author and dramatist of three famous plays about Ontario's Donnelly family, 81.
Bill Vince, movie producer nominated for an Academy Award in 2007 for "Capote," 44.
Ray Getliffe, hockey player with the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens who was credited with dubbing Maurice Richard "The Rocket," 94.
Red Shea, whose accomplished guitar playing supported Gordon Lightfoot, Ian Tyson and Tommy Hunter, 70.
George Finstad, who as weekend anchor of CBC's "The National News" in the 1970s, told Canadians about the murder of Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte.
July
Oliver Schroer, Canadian fiddle player and composer who successfully combined folk music traditions with elaborate classical arrangements, 52.
Bob Ackles, B.C. Lions' long-serving president and chief executive officer and member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, 69.
John Templeton, mutual-fund pioneer, investor and philanthropist who used Canada as a springboard to great wealth, 95.
Helen Gardiner, philanthropist and fundraiser who turned the Gardiner Museum in Toronto into a priceless gem, 70.
James Fenwick Lansdowne, renowned wildlife artist whose works have been exhibited around the world, 71.
August
K.M. Graham, celebrated painter of landscapes who took up painting at age 50 after her husband's death, 94.
Michel Vastel, prominent Quebec journalist, author and political commentator, 68.
Wilf Creighton, survivor of the Halifax explosion of 1917, 104.
Geoffrey Ballard, founder of Ballard Power Systems Inc. and called the father of the fuel cell industry for his work, including the introduction of the world's first hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered, zero-emission transit bus, 76.
September
Thomas Bata, descendent of generations of eastern European cobblers and builder of the Bata shoe empire, 93.
Erik Nielsen, the Yukon's longest-serving member of Parliament (1957-1987) who also served as deputy prime minister under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, 84.
Allan Lawrence, who won 10 successive provincial and federal elections for the Progressive Conservative Party from the late 1950s to the late 1980s and served as solicitor general in Ottawa, 82.
Richard Monette, actor and the longest-serving artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, 64.
Marion Dewar, former Ottawa mayor and MP remembered for her program to help Vietnamese boat people find new lives in Canada, 80.
Ron Lancaster, Canadian Football League legend as a standout quarterback, head coach, administrator and television commentator, 69.
Kay Armstrong, Vancouver teacher and choreographer whose 1951 ballet "Etude" was the first Canadian choreography to enter the repertoire of the National Ballet, 87.
Gordon Dunphy, New Brunswick artisan whose wood-turned vessels are held in collections in Canada and abroad, 74.
Etienne Robinson, aboriginal leader in Manitoba who played instrumental roles in defeating the white paper of 1969, which proposed the abolition of the Indian Act and the rejection of land claims, 63.
Ralph Sazio, who won three Grey Cups as a coach with the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats, 86.
David Haber, artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada in the mid-1970s, 81.
Earle Hushagen, five-time national curling champion, 81.
Bennett Campbell, premier of P.E.I. from 1978-79, 65.
Dale Auger, Cree painter, filmmaker, author and educator from northern Alberta who became one of Canada's most successful aboriginal artists, 50.
October
Constance Rooke, champion of Canadian writing, an editor, a writer, a scholar and a beloved teacher, 65.
Frank Kerr, lead singer of Hamilton punk band Teenage Head, 52.
Charley Fox, Second World War Spitfire pilot who was credited with injuring German commander Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox, during a July 1944 strafing run over France, 88.
Ben Weider, businessman, philanthropist and scholar best known for founding the International Federation of BodyBuilders with his brother Joe, 85.
Blair MacLean, one half of MacLean and MacLean, the foul-mouthed comedy act he formed with his younger brother Gary, 62.
Charles Dubin, chief justice of Ontario, head of an inquiry into drug use in amateur sport, 87.
November
Kenny MacLean, bassist for the 1980s band Platinum Blonde, 52.
Ray Perrault, former Liberal MP, senator, leader of the B.C. Liberal party, 82.
Jim Ridley, baseball scout, manager of Canada's 1988 Olympic baseball team, 64.
Tom Burgess, Canadian baseball hall of famer whose brief major league career was followed by long service as a coach and manager, 82.
Armand (Bep) Guidolin, the youngest man ever to skate in the NHL when he joined the Boston Bruins in 1942, 82.
December
Betty Goodwin, one of Canada's most established and contemporary visual artists, 85.
Ted Rogers, who built Rogers Communications from a single radio station into Canada's largest wireless, cable and media company, owner of the Toronto Blue Jays, television stations, cable TV, wireless, radio and magazines, 75.
Bob Hull, journalist, former editor of the Owen Sound Sun Times and publisher of the North Bay Nugget, 71.
Bent Jensen, who led the Canadian lightweight men's four crew to a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics, 60.
Joe (King) Krol, football hall of famer who won six Grey Cups in the 1940s and '50s, 89.
Kay Reynolds, champion of the rights of the disabled in Prince Edward Island for more than 50 years, 85.
Mike Blum, who played for three CFL teams and earned a Grey Cup ring with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, 65.
Jim Fulton, NDP environment critic in the Commons and later head of the David Suzuki Foundation, 58.
Gordon Fairweather, first head of Canada's human rights commission, 85.
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