Known for his trademark bow ties and commanding six-foot-two presence, John Allen Honderich was an old-fashioned journalist with ink in his veins and a passion for life.
The Canadian businessman who was editor of the Toronto Star from 1994 to 2004 has died.
Honderich died at his Toronto home at the age of 75 on Saturday, Star spokesman Bob Hepburn said.
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Honderich, whose father was the late Beland Honderich, also a former editor of the Toronto Star, was part of the Canadian newspaper industry from birth, and much of his working life revolved around the media icon founded in 1892 and, until recently, , partially owned by His family.
He embraced his role as a senior statesman and spokesman for the industry, defending it and demanding support from government and rivals alike.
“Canada faces a crisis of quality journalism,” he wrote in a January 2018 editorial demanding that the federal government act on the recommendations of the Public Policy Forum’s The Shattered Mirror media report published in early 2017.
“If you believe, as I do, that a vigorous and investigative press is essential to a strong democracy, we should all be very concerned.”
Hepburn, who is also a columnist for the Star and considers himself a friend of Honderich’s, said they met in the 1980s when they both worked at the paper.
“He loved newspapers. He loved the Toronto Star and the industry, too,” Hepburn said in a phone interview Saturday night.
More recently, Hepburn said that Honderich had finished writing a book about the Star, which was in the editing stage.
Hepburn noted that Honderich funded several journalism scholarships. She said that he will be remembered in Toronto as a city builder. Nationally, she said, Honderich will be remembered as someone who cared deeply about Canada and democracy.
In part to avoid accusations of nepotism, Honderich began his journalistic career as a copyist for the Ottawa Citizen in 1973.
He joined the Star in 1976 as a reporter, eventually becoming head of the Star’s Ottawa and Washington bureaus. After serving as deputy editor, he was named business editor in May 1984.
In 1986 he moved to London, England to study at the London School of Economics. At the same time, she wrote a book called the Arctic Imperative, published in the fall of 1987 by the University of Toronto Press, in which she described the grave dangers that threatened northern Canada.
He was editor of the Toronto Star from 1988 to 1994, then served as its editor from 1994 to May 2004.
His departure from the Star shocked Toronto. It came to light in a “sources say” article on the front page of the rival Globe and Mail which claimed that Honderich was leaving due to clashes with then-Torstar CEO Robert Prichard.
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“After almost 10 years as an editor and 28 years on staff, I am announcing that I am leaving Star. I do so with a heavy heart,” Honderich wrote in a subsequent statement.
“However, for some time there has been a corporate desire for change. As a result, I have worked hard to achieve an effective transition and will continue to do so.”
Three days later, he was made a member of the Order of Canada. He was made a Member of the Order of Ontario in 2006.
Honderich graduated from the University of Toronto with a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics in 1968 and earned a law degree in 1971.
He received honorary degrees from the University of Victoria, Ryerson University and King’s College University and was inducted into the Canadian News Hall of Fame in 2014.
He has served on the boards of the Atkinson Foundation, Michener Fellowship, Martin Goodman Fellowship, Mowat Centre, Seneca College, and The Nature Conservancy.
He had two children, Robin and Emily, with his ex-wife Katherine Govier.
Until 2020, the Honderich family was one of five that ran the Toronto Star following the death of its founder, Joseph E. Atkinson, in 1948.
But two years ago, the families agreed to sell Torstar, which has an investment in The Canadian Press, to NordStar Capital LP.
Honderich served as president of The Canadian Press from 2001 to 2004.
Though he held many top executive positions at the paper and the company that owns it, Honderich remained a storyteller at heart.
In 2017, while chairman of the Torstar Corp., he completed a mission to coincide with Canada’s 150th anniversary year to see all 45 national parks and write about the trip for Toronto Star readers.
“I feel on top of the world!” he wrote from Canadian Forces Base Alert, Nunavut, in December 2017. “Literally, because I am standing on the trail of the northernmost permanent settlement on Earth. Figuratively speaking, because I have now successfully completed my 2017 odyssey.”
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Reference-globalnews.ca