Hall of Fame
The Ontario Community Newspapers Association (OCNA) is proud to recognize and celebrate individuals who have made exemplary contributions to Ontario’s community newspapers through our Hall of Fame. Inductees will be respected community news professionals who have remained passionate about the industry throughout challenges, opportunities and changes. They will be leaders who have helped community newspapers adapt and grow.
David Armstrong exemplified the best of what a community newspaper owner should be - a principled individual and consummate community builder. Dave grew up in Sarnia and attended Western University where he met his future wife and business partner, Trudi.
Fred Heidman got his start at the Parry Sound North Star as an 18-year-old printer's devil in 1960. And while the early part of his career focused on typesetting and ad creation, he did almost every job (except reporting) the paper had to offer. In...
Jim Schmidt spent his entire life in and around the Ayr News. His father John and uncle Alfred purchased the paper in 1913, which has been in the family ever since. In 1942, Jim left school at 15 and began his full-time apprenticeship in the family...
Mohsen Taghavi's love of the written word began when he was a young boy in Iran reading the classics of both Persian and world literature. While studying in Los Angeles, Mohsen got his first taste of journalism when he volunteered to collect...
Mike Williscraft began his journalistic career with a dream of starting his own harness racing publication. After a stint with the Globe & Mail in 1985, he was hired on as managing editor of the industry-leading The Standardbred Magazine. After...
Jack Evans has been a journalistic stalwart for over 65 years and is currently the dean of news in the Bay of Quinte area. Jack was bitten by the journalism bug during his time as a boy chorister in Belleville where, using a borrowed typewriter...
Bob Hall was born with ink in his veins and naturally followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather into the newspaper industry. His parents, Gordon and Marion, purchased the Haldimand Advocate in 1931 with Bob coming along in 1937. By 16...
Sam Laurin joined the family-owned Morrisburg Leader in 1977 -- along with his brother Terry and later his brother Mike -- becoming the third generation of Laurin's to run the 160-year-old paper. Since then, Sam and his family have worked hard...
On Labour Day 1985, Mark Ribble walked into the composing room of the Leamington Post beginning a career that has seen him work in almost every area of the newspaper business. During high school, Mark dreamed about becoming a broadcast journalist...
Peter Winkler spent 36 years in the newspaper business as a leader both in ad sales and as a publisher, bringing value and growing every publication he worked for. He began his career at the Kitchener-Waterloo Record before becoming a sales manager...
After attending Carleton University in Ottawa, and an adventure of discovery through Europe in the early 1970s, Atkins worked briefly for the federal government in the newly amalgamated city of Thunder Bay...
Abbas Homayed came to Canada in 1986 with little money and little English. The community where he has made his home now is a true testament to his hard work, civic leadership and the will to make a difference...
Keith Roulston grew up during a time when neighbours came together to undertake tasks that were too big to accomplish alone. The lesson that community action can help the individual achieve his or her goals has been a guiding principle
Murray Skinner's newspaper career spans over 40 years, 33 of them with Metroland, preceded by 8 years with Thomson Newspapers. He served as Metroland's vice president of marketing for 19 years, before being appointed president in 2000. He retired in 2008.
Jim Thomas' career in the newspaper business spanned eight decades. He still remembers his first story, which was published in the Markham Economist and Sun while attending high school. He hitchhiked to Windsor
William (Bill) Charles Cavell began his over 72-year career in the newspaper business in a small way. Learning that his high school had no newspaper, Bill stepped in to fill the void with a mimeographed sheet that he sold to fellow students...
Wayne Green's newspaper career began at the age of 16 in 1951, right out of high school, as an "apprentice printer" at the Temiskaming Speaker Printing Company (TPC) in New Liskeard, printer of the Temiskaming Speaker weekly newspapers...
Ron Lenyk began his career in 1970, working for the Mississauga News as a sports reporter and was promoted to sports editor not a year later. By June 1971, he was promoted to editor and in 1977 was named publisher of the Brampton Guardian...
Jack Morris began his newspaper career at the Chesterville Record in the 1920s as a "printer's devil" and spent 65 years in the community newspaper business. It would have been more, but he served as an intelligence officer in WWII...