Literate, articulate and tireless, David Grierson of CBC Radio in Victoria died suddenly of an apparent heart attack while visiting Tofino for CBC on November 20, 2004. His death brought forth an outpouring of respect, appreciation and dismay from his many listeners and those who knew him in the arts community. He wrote a weekly jazz column for Georgia Straight, text for The Expo Celebration (Whitecap, 1986) and contributed to publications that included downbeat, Swing Journal, Canadian Musician and Western Living. For television he co-hosted Sunday Arts/Entertainment and contributed to Good Rockin' Tonight and The Journal on CBC Television. His series The Performers ran on CTV and Turner Network Television. For CBC Radio he created, hosted and produced North by Northwest, a weekend morning program in British Columbia devoted to the arts. In December of 2000, he began hosting Vancouver Island's weekday morning program On The Island. As a radio broadcaster, he also contributed to Westcoast Performance, Richardson's Roundup, The Arts Report, Stereo Morning, Morningside, Gabereau, Sunday Morning, Prime Time, Arts National, Sunday Matinee, Vanishing Point and he was the voice of the National Research Council Time Signal. A sophisticated songwriter, Grierson was a charter member of the Writers Guild of Canada and the BC Chapter of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He served on the board of directors of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival prior to moving to Victoria where he lived with his two sons and literary agent Kathryn Mulders. When profiled for a Focus magazine article by Linda Rogers entitled "Why is David Grierson Such a Nice Guy?"; he was asked "When you go to the great radio program in the sky, what do you hope people will say about you?" He replied, "They can say that David Grierson loved his real family and his radio family. He was a blessed but sleep deprived man and now, at last, he is sleeping in." Born in 1955, David Grierson was 49.

BOOKS

The Expo Celebration (Whitecap, 1986). Text for photography.