Henning Grumme, 82, on Oct. 22. Henning spent 27 years working with Kitchener’s CKCO-TV, from 1967 to 1997, retiring as the station’s Operations and Production Supervisor. Henning also spent three decades hosting Saturday morning show “Continental Breakfast” on FM 98.5 CKWR Waterloo, alongside co-host Fred Trautim. Born in Hamburg, in retirement he went on to serve as the president of local Oktoberfest celebrations and on the board of the KW Musical Society Band, among other community organizations.
Dwight Ryan, 77, on Oct. 21. after suffering a severe stroke and heart attack in May 2021 while producing the 6 p.m. newscast for CHCH. A reporter, anchor and producer, Ryan had a combined 55-year career in the broadcast and communications industry that started while he was still in high school when he got a part-time job at a Hamilton radio station in the control room. He went on to hold positions at CKPC Brantford, CKOC Hamilton, CJCS Stratford, CKWW Windsor, CKOY Ottawa, CHML Hamilton and later North Bay and Sudbury. He made his foray into television in 1976 as News Director at CKNY-TV in North Bay. From there, he landed at CHRO-TV in Ottawa/Pembroke as News Director from 1977-79, before going on to an 18-year run with CHCH-TV in Hamilton. His time with the station included serving as a Queen’s Park Bureau reporter, reporting on business for the Morning Business Program, an eight-year stint producing the evening newscasts and taking regular shifts as an assignment and line-up editor. In 1997, Ryan left CHCH to launch Daryan Communications, his own corporate communications and marketing consultancy, but he continued to work part-time at CHCH. Read more here.
Ray Heard, 91, peacefully on Oct. 17, following a stroke. The son of two journalists, Heard was born in South Africa and started his journalism career covering Nelson Mandela’s treason trial for The Rand Daily Mail. He went on to win a Frank Knox scholarship to Harvard University, studying under John Kenneth Galbraith and Henry Kissinger. Heard joined The Montreal Star in 1962 and was named White House correspondent a year later. He was infamously in Bobby Kennedy’s entourage when he was shot in 1968, with a speech he helped Kennedy write read at the funeral. After covering the successive presidencies of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, Heard went on to become editor of The Observer Foreign News Service in London, returning to The Montreal Star as Managing Editor from 1976-79. He went on to join Global TV as Vice-President of News and Current Affairs, until 1987 when he went to work as a communications strategist for the federal leader of the Official Opposition, John Turner.
