Donald Ross MacKay was born in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. He came to Brandon College in 1936, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1939. From 1940-1947, MacKay served in the Canadian Army Canada and overseas. In September 1947 he was appointed Registrar-Bursar at Brandon College. During his career he also served as University Comptroller, Public Relations Officer, Director of Development, Secretary to the Board of Governors, Secretary of the Board of Directors, Secretary to Senate and Assistant to the President. He also served on the Brandon College Expansion Committee, the Hales Museum Committee and was the Chairman of the Athletic Directorate. MacKay retired from the University in 1984. After his retirement he served on the Brandon University Foundation Board of Directors. In recognition of his service to the University MaKay was presented with the Alumni Award in 1974 and with the Distinguished Service Award in 1981 for his contributions to society. MacKay's additional community involvement included the Centennial Auditorium Committee, the Brandon Schools Orchestral Band Association, the Planning Committee for First United Church - St. Paul's Church (what became Central United Church), the Manitoba Heart Foundation, the Kiwanis Club, the Wally Byam Caravan Club, Nitecappers and Northview Pools Inc.
MacKay's career at Brandon College and Brandon University was unprecedented in the breadth of administrative responsibility. As a result, records created during his tenure as Comptroller almost certainly also reflect his responsibilites beyond the Comptroller's Office.
Don MacKay died on April 2, 1990. He was predeceased by his first wife Gwen Dobie, with whom he had four children: Joan, Holly, Ross and Jane. He left behind a second wife, Mona.
Information that accompanied the photograph: Born Wilcox Lake, Ontario, 1870. Died 1964 in Brandon, MB. A long-time member of a number of boards at the College. Played a role in re-establishing Brandon College through Brandon College Inc. and the McKenzie Foundation by donating 90% of the shares in his company to the MB Government to support higher education, specifically Brandon College.
Fred McGuinness’ broadcasting career began when he enrolled at St. Paul’s College, an affiliate of the University of Manitoba. In 1945, he became chairman of the Radio Subcommittee working as the Director of the University Radio Series where he was responsible (i.e., writing, casting, directing) for a half-hour Saturday afternoon radio programme.
McGuinness sold his first manuscript to the CBC in 1947, recording a 14-minute broadcast titled the “Class A Circuit” about the Royal American tour. The script was based on work McGuinness had done as a Director of Publicity and Exploitation (1947 to 1952) for the Royal American Shows while the show toured with the fairs on the Canadian prairies.
McGuinness began developing broadcast scripts in earnest for the CBC when he returned to Manitoba in 1966. By the 1970s, McGuinness was writing copy for CBC’s Radio Noon and Information Radio, as well as producing Ashgrove Farm, a CBC radio drama.
By 1980, McGuinness was hosting the CBC Radio broadcast Neighborly News from the Prairies. The radio program was cancelled by the CBC in 1983 after much outcry, but was resurrected with Altona broadcaster CFAM later that year with McGuinness at the helm. The radio show concluded its run in the summer of 1987.
In 1985, McGuinness returned to broadcast with the CBC and is popularly known for his “Manitoba Reports” that he delivered on CBC Radio’s Morningside with Peter Gzowski. He held his position as the prairie correspondent for 12 years. In the final three to four years of the Morningside show, McGuinness was asked to write non-political essays for broadcast. These “Letters Assignments” would be later published in 1999 by Great Plains Publishing as Letters from Section 17: A Collection of Morningside Essays.
Custodial History
Accession 1-2015 contains records created and collected over the course of McGuinness’ career as a radio broadcaster, newspaper journalist and freelance writer. The Estate of Fred McGuinness donated the materials to the SJ McKee Archives circa 2011. The Archives accessioned the records in 2015.
Scope and Content
Fred McGuinness was involved in a number of radio broadcasts in his life. The records in this subseries are the result of that work. The subseries contains drafts of possible broadcast scripts dating to the 1950s and early 1960s, drafts of CBC broadcast scripts for CBC’s Radio Noon, Information Radio, Ashgrove Farms radio drama, and Neighborly News from the Prairies. McGuinness appears to have annotated his scripts to reflect breathing, pauses, and other factors that could impact the delivery of his script on air.
The S.J. McKee Archives does not appear to have broadcast scripts pertaining to McGuinness’ CBC Morningside years.
Notes
Information for the history/biography was obtained from documents in the Radio broadcast script subseries (McG 6.1), McGuinness’ book Letters from Section 17 (published by Great Plains Publications in 1999), and his column “A Mourning Sigh for National Institution, “ Brandon Sun, May 29, 1997
Accruals
Closed
Finding Aid
A file level inventory is available
Storage Location
2015 accessions
Related Material
Fred McGuinness would write/publish about a topic in a number of forums. Therefore, it is possible materials pertaining to his broadcast career may be found in other series of the Fred McGuinness collection. McGuinness’ UofM student radio club certificates can be found in his scrapbook (McG 1.4). A sound recording of one of McGuinness’ UofM broadcasts can be found in McG 7
CBC Radio Archives - Morningside
Trent University, Peter Gzowski fonds (99-015)
Arrangement
Arrangement was artificially created by the Archives. Subseries has been re-arranged according to publication period
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