It All Began With Prince Rupert
Dear readers,
I hope you will find the short articles republished from the second, and to some extent, from the upcoming third edition of The Story of Czechs and Slovaks in Canada, interesting. Both Peter Charles Newman and Jan Waldauf are men of huge achievement. I would like to remind you that it is expected that the book will be sent to the printers in July and that orders for the book as well as new entries to be included in the book must be received by any of the three publications supporting this project no later than May 31, 2016. Thank you.
Josef Čermák
Peter Charles Newman was born in Vienna of parents with Czech Jewish heritage. After arriving in Canada in 1940, he attended the Upper Canada College and the University of Toronto. He started his newspaper career at the Financial Post, as assistant editor, then served as assistant editor at MacLean´s magazine, moved to the Toronto Daily Star where in 1969 he was appointed editor-in-chief. He has written extensively on Canadian business and politics in many magazines including the Times of London, New York Times and The Queen´s Quarterly and toured Europe for the Financial Post and Asia and the Middle East for MacLean´s. For a number of years his syndicated column appeared in 29 Canadian newspapers. He also taught journalism at York University and is a recipient of the National Newspaper Award for Journalism. He is co-author of the television documentary awarded CBC´s Wilderness Award for best production of the year in 1967, co-author of CBC-TV series The Tenth Decade and a series on the Canadian Establishment. Newman, the permanent chronicler of the Canadian business elite could also be claimed by the Czechs because as a child he lived in Břeclav, Czechoslovakia, where his father owned a factory and where young Peter enjoyed not only his servants but also his own petting zoo. For his extraordinary achievements as an author, columnist and editor, Newman has been honoured with honorary doctorates, an Achievement in Life Award by Encyclopedia Britannica Publishers, the Companion rank of the Order of Canada, a Silver Medal from the Japanese Red Cross Society and more. He also served on boards of important public bodies such as the National Youth Orchestra and the National Governors of the Shaw Festival.
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Jan Waldauf was born in 1929 in Czechoslovakia. He left the country in 1948 and arrived in Canada in April of next year. In Canada, Waldauf worked as a farm labourer, lumberjack, shipper and accountant. In 1963 he became comptroller of Dunwoody&Company, Chartered Accountants. In 1975 he joined Mitsui&Co. (Canada) Ltd., retiring as Vice-President. In 2001 he received from President Havel a Medal for Service to the State, 1st Class. His work for Sokol is monumental. He held every position in the organization, in Toronto branch, in Sokol Canada and in the worldwide Czechoslovak Sokol Abroad, and was a member of Canada’s National Council on Fitness and Amateur Sport. He also wrote, published and distributed Sokolský Věstník (Sokol Abroad bulletin).
The last years of his life Jan spent mainly in doing research into the Sokol’s past and writing the most extensive Sokol history ever.
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