David Grierson Arts Legacy Scholarship
David Grierson (February 19, 1955 - November 20, 2004) was a Vancouver Island radio host for CBC Radio. He was born in Toronto in 1955 and graduated from the broadcasting program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology.
In his literary life, Grierson wrote The Expo Celebration, the best-selling retrospective book featuring the work of more than 50 of Canada's top photographers. A passion for jazz music saw him create and write a weekly column called The Jazz Life for the Georgia Straight, and his features have appeared in publications including Down Beat, Swing Journal, Canadian Musician and Western Living.
Grierson was a weekly columnist and co-host of Sunday Arts/Entertainment, as well as a contributor to Good Rockin' Tonight and The Journal on CBC television. His series The Performers ran on CTV and Turner Network Television.
In the late 1980s, Grierson hosted 'The Arts Report' CBC Radio Two's national morning arts newscast. Freelance producer James Careless worked with Grierson in the gabled attic of CBC Radio's Jarvis Street headquarters in Toronto, which had been a girl's school in a former life.
"David was truly larger-than-life, and one of the few people you could look forward to working with at 4:30 a.m.," Careless recalls. "He had a Puckish sense of humour that motivated him to take a production assistant's desktop collection of toy dinosaurs, and transform them into tableaux of CBC Radio personalities; complete with handmade props (including Vicki Gabareau's trademark red eyeglass frames) and written captions. If you had a birthday coming up, David would secretly organize a big post-show breakfast, complete with gag gifts that he had purchased. At the dry old CBC, such levity and thoughtfulness was generally unheard of. If there was anyone who committed senseless acts of random kindness on a regular basis, it was David."
Grierson created and was the host and producer of North by Northwest, CBC Radio One's weekend morning show about creative people and what they create. In December 2000, he left 'NXNW to take up the reins of On The Island, making the successful transition from hosting performance to current affairs programming. David also contributed his talents to Westcoast Performance, Richardson's Roundup, The Arts Report, Stereo Morning, Morningside, Gabereau, Sunday Morning, Prime Time, Arts National, Sunday Matinee, Vanishing Point, DiscDrive, and he was the voice of the National Research Council Time Signal.
A frequent juror for competitions in all fields of creative endeavour, Grierson was a charter member of the Writers Guild of Canada, one of the founding members of the BC Chapter of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and sat on the board of directors of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival.
He died of a sudden heart attack on November 20, 2004. He is survived by his two sons Patrick and Graeme, their mother Sheri, his partner Kathryn Mulders, parents Marjorie and Charles Grierson, sister Maureen Jones, and brother Peter Grierson, their spouses and families.
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