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Former Saultite Harvey Kirck dies

Harvey Kirck, the legendary CTV news anchor who began his broadcasting career in Sault Ste. Marie, died today at the age of 73.
Kirck

Harvey Kirck, the legendary CTV news anchor who began his broadcasting career in Sault Ste. Marie, died today at the age of 73.

Kirck, who grew up on a farm in the Northern Ontario town of New Liskeard, landed his first staff job in 1948 at CJIC-AM radio in the Soo.

He died of a heart attack this morning at his home north of Toronto.

Kirck is best known to Canadians as the anchor of CTV National News from 1963 to 1984. When he left the job after his 20th season, Kirck was the longest-serving television anchor in North America.

"He was also the first major anchor of private TV news in this country and he gave it a stature and a consistency it hadn't had before," another former Saultite, current CTV anchor Lloyd Robertson, said today.

"That puts him in the history books," Robertson said.

"Harvey was a first-class newsman and one of the first traditional old-fashioned newsmen - he cared fundamentally about facts and getting it right. He was also straightforward and honest and unflappable," said Robertson, who co-anchored CTV News with Kirck from 1976 to 1984.

In a no-nonsense style that was somehow as endearing as it was gruff, Kirck told Canadians about John F. Kennedy's assassination, Winston Churchill's funeral, the Apollo space missions, and the Quebec referendum.

The Canadian Press reported today that Kirck was first attracted to broadcasting as a farm boy in New Liskeard, when he listened to radio personalities including Jack Armstrong and Lorne Greene (known as the CBC's "voice of doom" newscaster before he starred as Pa Cartwright on the TV western Bonanza).

Kirck worked various radio jobs through the late 1940s and 1950s, and then began his television career in 1960 as a news presenter at Hamilton's CHCH-TV.

He started in television before U.S. broadcast legends Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, and managed to outlast all of them.

At the time of his retirement, a fellow journalist referred to Kirck as "a beat-up friendly face."

Instantly recognized on the streets of any Canadian city, that face was almost always greeted as "Harvey," almost never as "Mr. Kirck."

Two years ago, Kirck was inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' Hall of Fame.

Harvey Kirck closed his last newscast in 1984 with these words: "With a heartfelt thank you, I think we should carry on as usual." To receive free, real-time updates of SooToday.com's exclusive coverage of local news, just send an Email with "SUBSCRIBE" in the subject line to [email protected].


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David Helwig

About the Author: David Helwig

David Helwig's journalism career spans seven decades beginning in the 1960s. His work has been recognized with national and international awards.
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