Prolific editor, columnist Robert Fulford dead at 92

Robert Fulford’s son-in-law Stephen Marche says the prolific writer died Tuesday afternoon in Toronto surrounded by family. He was 92. (Kevin Van Paassen/The National Post/The Canadian Press)

Lifelong journalist, broadcaster, author and editor Robert Fulford is being remembered for his vibrant mind and insatiable curiosity.

Fulford’s son-in-law Stephen Marche says the prolific writer died Tuesday afternoon in Toronto surrounded by family. He was 92.

Marche says Fulford suffered several health setbacks in his later years, including a stroke in his late 70s and vascular dementia in the past five years.

The essayist and former “Saturday Night” editor leaves behind a staggering body of work spanning 72 years that included magazine and newspaper columns, arts reviews and books.

He cycled through virtually every major Toronto media outlet including Maclean's, the Toronto Star, CBC Radio, and National Post, and spent nearly 20 years as editor of “Saturday Night,” which Marche described as a watershed for Canadian magazines under Fulford’s watch.

Former colleague and friend John Fraser says Fulford’s family protected his privacy as his health declined so that he would be remembered for his sharp mind and voracious intellectual appetite.

“He had a big public persona and that's the persona they wanted most people to remember,” said Fraser, executive chair of the National NewsMedia Council and former "Saturday Night" editor.

A biography on Fulford’s website lists a broad array of passions including jazz, the visual arts, architecture, city planning, museums, archeology, literature, theatre, film and politics.

He was born in Ottawa on Feb. 13, 1932 to Frances Fulford and A.E. Fulford, a journalist with The Canadian Press.

He grew up in Toronto where his neighbour and best friend was celebrated pianist Glenn Gould. Fulford began his career writing about high school sports at age 16 and producing a weekly teen radio show. He joined the Globe and Mail as a reporter at 18.

Fulford's books include the Expo '67 coffee table book “This Was Expo” and a 1968 collection of his columns, “Crisis at the Victory Burlesk: Culture, Politics and Other Diversions,” the 1974 collection “Marshall Delaney at the Movies: The Contemporary World as Seen on Film” and 1995’s “Accidental City: The Transformation of Toronto.”

Celebrated writer and editor Gary Ross, who edited Fulford for years at "Saturday Night," said Fulford never went to university but had a remarkable mind driven by insatiable curiosity "and interest in more things than you can imagine."

"It was an education to be around him," Ross said Wednesday.

"He knew so much it was remarkable. He formed opinions that were the result of critical thinking, not just passion or bias or whatever, and he articulated them with such grace and ease. It was astonishing."

Fraser says that like a lot of news people, he and Fulford "were very big gossips," and Fulford, in particular, was a stimulating conversationalist who could talk about anything.

"We'd like to know everything about everything. But what I admired about him so much was that he was an unpretentious intellectual. In other words, he could write for the general public on quite serious things and bring ordinary readers along," he said.

"He was able to take something that was right in front of people's faces and turn it upside down and make them ponder what it was that they were missing and what they should know more about. And to me, that made him a great journalist, one who really made people think and to dig deeper into stories."

Fulford leaves behind widow and fellow journalist Geraldine Sherman, and children, James, Margaret (and her husband Jeffrey Rosenthal), Rachel (and her husband Nicholas Power), Sarah (and her husband Stephen Marche); and grandson Elijah Robert Marche and granddaughter Aviva Janet Marche.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024