It is all about me - original 1st class assignment warehoused here in toto
Stephen Weir here (above), once again telling you about myself. I think it's great that you have imposed a page limit, which I promise to follow (both for you and myself).
A couple of years ago, when applying for Life Experience Credits (which I received 26 of), I had to submit a reflection on my life. At page 110, I decided to cut it short. This time, I'll only share a few braggable highlights of my 72 years of walking this earth (and exploring under the waves).
Where to begin? In the 60s, I moved to Renfrew when my dad became the town optometrist. Renfrew had lost its major industry (Douglas Aircraft), and people were leaving. It was tough, and I was often mugged by fellow students. The bright spot was The Renfrew Mercury, which gave me a chance to write a weekly entertainment column. A few years before I joined, the legendary Robertson Davies had been the editor.
At 14, I was thrust into a lead type publication and was expected to meet deadlines and learn to spell. By 1969, after being beaten up too many times, I decided to leave the Ottawa Valley.
Windsor University had just become public, though the Basilian Fathers were still on campus. They ran a Preliminary Year for American students avoiding the draft. The Fathers accepted me, seeing Renfrew as dangerous as Hanoi.
I spent two years at Windsor, met my wife in the second month, and lived a carefree life, using my mother’s Baby Bonus cheques to pay for our bar bills at Sid’s Bridge House (now I cash my old age pension cheque at Syd's Dominion House (the DH).
I failed at university, but I got involved in Student Radio CSRW and helped acquire a CRTC closed circuit license. I also joined campus demonstrations, including blocking the Ambassador Bridge in protest of U.S. nuclear tests. I met Hanoi Jane at the Winter Soldier hearings on campus.
My wife and I moved to Toronto in 1971. She pursued Pharmacy at UofT; I studied Journalism at Ryerson Polytechnic Institute. I was one of the first students to graduate with a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Journalism, while most settled for a diploma. I returned to Windsor to complete a couple of English courses required by Ryerson.
In 1975, still renting from the Basilian Fathers, I joined the Alternative Rock CJOM- fm station as an engineer and reporter, working occasionally with Baba Ram Das (he put the "OM" in the call letters) and CKWW-am. I was fired when the stations changed formats, and we moved to Peterborough. There, I became the editor of three newspapers in Lakefield, where we supported Margaret Laurence’s fight to keep The Diviners in libraries. I also began diving and discovered a small lake near Bancroft used to dump uranium tailings. My investigative journalism earned the Ontario Ministry of Environment Award in 1988, along with an OWNA photography award.
We returned to Toronto, where I worked as an internal communicator at Litton Systems Canada, publishing a magazine for employees. I became an expert in PR and marketing for military and commercial aerospace products. I travelled across North America promoting cruise missiles and air defense tanks to politicians and journalists.
In the late 80s, I became a crisis communications expert when the Squamish Five bombed our factory, injuring first responders and overnight workers. I managed the global media response. In 1993, I worked for Litton in Beverly Hills, helping produce films for new warships and writing the annual report. I also managed PR for the U.S. military during the Gulf War, specifically Operation Desert Storm.
After Litton Industries was sold and broken up in 1994, I returned to Canada and started my own communications company. I also became a staff writer for Diver Magazine for 40 years, Maclean’s, The Toronto Star, and many other Canadian publications.
I worked briefly with Nelson Mandela, Justin Trudeau, Bob Rae, John Turner, Herb Grey, president Trump, Yoko Ono, Morrisseau and A.Y Jackson. I took a picture of Mrs Signe McMichael in her coffin in state in the gallery lounge. My company handled PR for the McMichael Canadian Art Institute for 15 years, PAMA (Brampton’s art gallery, museum, and archives) for five years, and the Hamilton Art Gallery. I was also hired to launch the Toronto Maritime Museum and worked as a communications consultant for the Ontario Underwater Council.
I learned how to take underwater photographs, located a sunken 1916 paddlewheeler, and wrote a best selling non-fiction story of her strange sinking (survivors tied their neck ties to a floating coffin. The book’s title? The Sinking Of The Mayflower.
Adventure has been a constant in my life. I worked as a writer, producer, and key grip for the Canadian/U.S. 13-part TV series Sky High, about airplanes and airshows. I also held a similar role for Power Boat Television, where we filmed a one-hour special on a trip across the Bering Strait to Russia—before the Soviet Navy stopped us and robbed us and set us back to US waters!
I was a writer, safety diver, and key grip for a shipwreck expedition in the Red Sea. On the team, I survived an attack by an Egyptian elder who cursed us all for defiling a mummy’s tomb Tragically he won, I have lost four of my five diving companions to drowning since that curse.
In addition to adventure, I’ve handled communications for prestigious Canadian institutions, including the Charles Taylor Non-Fiction Award, the McGill Cundill Prize for History, and the Scotiabank Photography Award. I’ve also worked with Beach Digital to produce over 100 interviews with Canadian artists for the Canadian Art Channel on YouTube.
As a freelance writer, I’ve interviewed and photographed every prime minister since Diefenbaker, and when I wrote about the Trump Hotel in Toronto for the Star, I had the opportunity to ask Donald Trump questions about the project. I have had radio shows on CFRB in Toronto, read the results of the 9th race in Windsor on CKWW, and a news show on CHEX in Peterborough. I was an on-air stringer for Global TV.
For the past 10 years, I’ve worked at the Caribbean Camera, where I write featured stories and take photos weekly. I also managed PR for Caribana and the Toronto Caribbean Carnival for 13 years (from parade coverage to murder reportage). IN the past three months I assisted a client, photographer Yuri Dojc open his photography exhibit concerning the underground railroad at AWE (Windsor Art Gallery), staged a press conference for the Federal Justice Minister and Innocene Canada (I have been their communications consultant for 20 years). I also was presented with an Order of Merit from Innocene Canada just before the start of the Toronto presser.
2 Tell me about your relationship with the school My relationship with the University of Windsor goes back 56 years. The school has been good to me; it owes me nothing. I started this journey to obtain my BA during COVID. I was new to online learning and had my own challenges—I found out I had cancer. I lost a significant portion of my intestines through surgery and went through chemotherapy. Thank you, Windsor, for getting me through that difficult couple of semesters.
I do not have to pay for my schooling since I am a senior citizen. My only costs now are the train fare I pay from Toronto to Windsor and my city bus pass. Since returning, I have joined the Senate, the Senate Governance Committee, ULAC, and OPUS. Last week, the Provost asked me to join another Library Committee, which I have agreed to.
I guess my only criticism is that many of the deans and professors do not fully understand the rules and regulations of the school’s new program, which grants credits to mature students for past life experience. I have been given many different instructions concerning my progress and how my degree from Ryerson fits into my efforts to enter grad school. Currently, I am being told that I can receive my BA after passing your course, but if I want to get into one of the Communications or Creative Writing MA programs, I must take the equivalent of year four, which for me is another 2+ years of part-time study. That will make me 76.
A Master's could take another 3 years, meaning I will be about 80 before I even think about publishing another book. I probably won’t be alive.
3. What is your understanding of the word “theory”? To me, "theory" always seems to lean toward being a sophisticated guess. I’m guessing most of the class agrees with me.
4. What would you like to know about theory and theories of communication?
My theory about communication is that these theories are stratified depending on age, societal standing, and one’s sources of income. As a journalist, I am class-free. I can talk to anyone, wear what I want, and speak my mind. I do not think the same is true for women in Afghanistan or farm workers in America. Communication is so different between these groups.
5. What do you hope to get out of this course?
In other words, what are your goals?
I hope to understand how people communicate in this decade. I want to be able to communicate with the new generation and write in a language that is understood, liked, and relevant.
I want to continue writing, but the problem is my generation is dying. My Star and Huff Post articles were read by millions. Now? Hundreds. 6. What topics/areas/things are you interested in learning about? Social norms of the twenties.
7. Is there anything else you would like me to know?
One of the issues I face at Windsor is dealing with ageism. Some of it is very mild—like the young students on the bus begging me to take their seat, or the worker in the CAW cafeteria who sneaks me a free muffin. I find that students deal with my age very well, but many of your colleagues don’t. I would like to see a new type of in-class communication—not where the professor talks and we listen and take notes.
Many of the students are part-time and have life experiences that should be shared with fellow students and professors alike/ I feel that in your class, if a student knows something that has been cited in your lecture, you will let them speak out. That’s why I think I’m going to enjoy this class.
One note of concern: I am a proud Canadian, and much of my work promotes our arts, authors, and musicians. It’s too early to tell, but do all the YouTube clips have to be American? Do we get to talk about communication trends in French communities or First Nations communities?
Will you have readings by Canadian authors? Anyway, if I mouth off too much, could you hold up a sign that says “Don’t be an Asshole”?
Also, can you repeat loudly the comments made by the low-volume students?
Editor's note: This posting not meant for public consumption, warehoused it here while I edited the assignment down in Word.
