 TORONTO - Larry Henderson, one of The Catholic Register's longest-serving editors and a pioneer in TV journalism in Canada, died Nov. 27. He was 89.
Henderson died in a long-term care facility in London, Ont., where he had lived in recent years. His eldest son, Graham Henderson, said his father had suffered from a lengthy illness.
Over most of 62 years, Mr. Henderson worked as a professional journalist, whether it was doing cutting-edge television documentary for CBC, announcing radio news, or challenging Canada's elites in his Catholic Register columns.
"He was very passionate. And he was a true believer (when it came to his Roman Catholic faith, which he embraced as a convert in the late 1960s)," Graham Henderson told The Catholic Register.
"Truly there was never a dull moment with Larry Henderson as editor," recalled Alfred de Manche, who had been assistant general manager during the Henderson years from 1974-1986.
"He continually surprised us with so many new ideas and projects. I will never forget his fresh leadership, his many kindnesses and warm smile all the days of my life."
Mr. Henderson was born in Montreal on Sept. 4, 1917, to Edward and Edith Henderson. An only child, he was encouraged by his artistically inclined mother to develop his musical talent and became an accomplished pianist.
The young Larry Henderson studied music for three years on scholarship at McGill University before deciding to switch careers. He shipped over to England in 1936 where he spent the next couple of years performing Shakespeare on stage with the likes of Sir Alec Guinness and Sir Laurence Olivier. But his acting career was cut short by the Second World War.
He returned to Canada in 1939 and worked briefly for CBC Radio before enlisting in the army and joining the signal corps. He saw action in Italy and North Africa and rose to the rank of lieutenant.
After the war, he returned to the CBC where he became a radio announcer and then took over the show Headliners on CFRB in 1948. A year later he was married, having wed Joan Annand, a technical engineer he had met at the CBC. Together they went to Europe and retraced the steps of the Canadian army and record the experience for Headliners.
Later, they would have two sons, Graham and Ross.
In June 1950, he became the first Canadian broadcaster to cover the Korean War, spending six weeks there.
From 1954 to 1959, he was the face of the fledgling CBC TV network news for millions of Canadians. He went on to work for both radio and TV stations, including CHFI Toronto and CHCH-TV Hamilton.
An intellectual athiest of strong opinions, Henderson found himself drawn to the Roman Catholic faith, deeply influenced by Jacques Maritain and Cardinal John Henry Newman. In the mid-1960s, he converted and became one of Canada's most enthusiastic apologists for the church and a leading pro-life advocate.
In 1973, upon returning from Africa, where he had been working for the Canadian International Development Agency in Tanzania, he began writing for The Catholic Register. A year later he was asked to become the 12th editor of the then 81-year-old newspaper.
His years at The Register were stormy as the church itself continued to grapple with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and the world was in the grip of a widespread shift to the left.
Mr. Henderson's own ideological and religious leanings were conservative and decidedly anti-Communist, especially during the Cold War. His backing of unpopular stands (such as opposing the California grape boycott, supported widely in Catholic circles, and favouring South Africa President P.W. Botha's "go slow" approach to dismantling apartheid) sparked heavy criticism. In 1976 a group of Toronto left-leaning Catholics, no longer willing to accept The Register as the most significant media voice for the church in Canada, launched the Catholic New Times. It closed its doors for good in late November.
"We all found it an exciting time to work under him," said De Manche, "to see circulation increase through parish plans, as well as further developments in advertising and news coverage. . . . In his zeal to spread the faith, he made the Register the fourth largest national (Catholic) weekly in North America, with 50,000 papers going into over 1,000 parishes across the country."
Msgr. Tom Raby, the long-time Register columnist, remembered his former boss kindly, as both a "good friend and supporter" and a "gifted and faith-filled writer."
"Larry came to The Register at a critical time following Vatican II when many laity and even priests were taking liberties with their interpretations of council documents," he said. "Larry was a supporter of the holy father and the magisterium in spite of criticism from the free-thinkers of the day."
In 1986, Mr. Henderson resigned from The Register and moved to London, where he wrote and helped edit Challenge, a small Catholic magazine published in Winnipeg. He retired from that position in 2002.
Mr. Henderson's wife died nine years ago and he is survived today by his two sons.
The funeral was to be held Nov. 30 at 11:30 a.m. at Holy Family Church, 1372 King St. W., in Toronto.
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