Terry Garner
Terry
Garner died of cancer - January 7, 1996 at the age of 69.
The
RCAF veteran, who went on to host CBC's Reach for the Top student quiz show,
led the 600 students of Victoria College, the predecessor to UVic, in a march
on the legislature, demanding more space, in 1946.
Within
the week, the government moved the college from Craigdarroch Castle to the
Normal School, now Camosun College.
"The
protest was a lulu," recalled UVic professor emeritus Reg Roy.
He
was a year behind Garner, who was the first president of the student council to
be a veteran.
"Terry
Garner, born in Armstrong, was well known and well liked and certainly able to
express the student views on what was needed," Roy said in an interview
Wednesday.
"When
the student veterans went there after the war, the population doubled to about
500. It put a tremendous strain on the castle. It became a fire trap.
"It
was decided to stage a protest.
"It
was the only college or university protest where the students were marching in
step."
Garner
took his cue from college principal J.M. Ewing who told the returning veterans:
"I am ashamed to bring you into buildings so unsuitable for your reception
. . . buildings whose accommodation is makeshift and wholly inadequate."
Garner
asked the authorities to free up the Normal School for the college, but was met
with silence.
On
Oct. 10, 1946, Garner led the entire student body out on to Fort Street behind
piper Douglas Leask and the almost unheard-of student protest descended on the
city and the legislature.
The
protesters met Premier John Hart, who immediately appointed a special committee
to look into the problems.
Five
days later the committee reported back and the college moved into the Normal
School again with Garner at the head.
On
graduation he started a career in broadcasting in Victoria. He worked at
stations in the provincial capital, at Vancouver, Hamilton and
1961-
1982 he was host of CBC-TV's Reach for the Top, a knowledge quiz which had
teams of top high school students from across the country compete for top
school in Canada.
1974-1991
he was a senior member of the broadcast communications faculty of BCIT.
Times
Colonist Victoria 1996
***
The
Vancouver Sun
Terence
James Garner, who was master of ceremonies of the long-running CBC-TV show,
Reach for the Top, the popular quiz program for B.C. high-school students, died
Saturday of cancer in Port Moody. He was 69.
Garner
was born in Armstrong, and was educated at Victoria College and the University
of B.C. During the Second World War he served with the Royal Canadian Air
Force.
After
the war he was persuaded to try broadcasting by his friend, retired CKNW disc
jockey Jack Kyle and over the next 20 years he worked as an announcer and
program director with stations in Victoria (CJVI and CKDA), Hamilton, Ont., and
Montreal, & at CKWX and CHQM in Vancouver.
Garner
was the original editor of the Vancouver entertainment guide, Q Magazine: A
Guide to Entertainment and the Arts. In the 1960s, Garner, co-owner of a stable
of racehorses, also wrote a column on horse racing for Vancouver Life magazine.
Garner
was a jazz buff and organized concert tours in the late 1940s and '50s for the
Duke Ellington and Woody Herman bands.
Reach
for the Top debuted in 1961 in Vancouver and was an instant ratings success.
The following year, the show was picked up by CBC Edmonton and by 1966, 23
stations in all 10 provinces were carrying the show with about 600 schools
taking part.
Although
the program had different emcees in all the provinces, friend Lyndon Grove, who
worked with Garner at CHQM, said it was Garner's show that was used as a
training model for other CBC hosts.
``One
of whom was a young Alex Trebeck, now host of Jeopardy!,'' said Grove. ``Sometimes
when I watch Trebeck, I see Terry's mannerisms.
``Terry
was a perfectionist. He was a man intensely concerned with he rightness of
things -- the choice of words, the performance of music, the playing of games,
pronunciation, spelling, protocol, timing and professionalism.''
Former
prime minister Kim Campbell remembers Garner as ``one of the local voices
everyone knew . . . like Fred Davis.''
``He
was a very nice man and he did it very well,'' said Campbell, who recalled
making an appearance on the show in 1964 as part of the team from Prince of
Wales school.
``It
was an honor to be chosen. We didn't even have a full team, I don't know why. I
sat next to Fred Grauer. I became famous; he became rich.''
Garner
was replaced as host in 1982 by Eric Dwyer, and Reach for the Top was cancelled
in 1985.
In
1974, Garner joined the faculty of the B.C. Institute of Technology in the
broadcasting department, and retired in 1991. He recently completed a series of
scripts now being aired on the Knowledge Network.