Celebrated storyteller dead at 68
TStuart McLean, the bestselling author and soft-spoken humorist whose gentle celebration of life’s biggest and smallest moments endeared him to legions of faithful listeners of CBC Radio’s “The Vinyl Cafe,” has died. He was 68. CBC said the celebrated storyteller, who had been diagnosed with skin cancer, died on Wednesday in Toronto.
Tributes immediately poured in from fellow entertainers, broadcasters and fans who were quick to salute McLean’s heartfelt aims to unite Canadians in a way that helped us understand each other, no matter our backgrounds.
Fellow CBC veteran Peter Mansbridge called McLean a master storyteller who helped shape the public broadcaster and reach the country’s furthest corners.
“It’s a big loss, it’s a big loss for us but it’s a big loss for the country because he cared about Canada in a very special way and he made us all better by listening to the stories that he told,” said Mansbridge, who’d known McLean for more than 30 years.
McLean announced in December he was suspending his long-running program to focus on treatment for melanoma, which he was diagnosed with in late 2015. He said his first round of immunotherapy treatment that winter was not completely successful and he needed to undergo another round this year.
Mansbridge admitted to many times finding himself riveted by one of McLean’s stories in private encounters. The detailed yarns were always relayed in his trademark whisper-like gentle tone that invited the listener to lean in.
“The beauty of Stuart was he really was the same off-air as he was on-air,” said “The National” anchor.
“On-air he’s a terrific storyteller who could engage the public so easily with the simplest of stories — and he was just the same in real life.
I can remember many times when we were together that he’d just start telling stories, it could be a story about something that happened in the news the day before or something at work the day before, but he’d tell it in that magical way that he tells stories and you’d sit there totally involved in the way he told them.”
McLean was an officer of the Order of Canada, a professor emeritus at Ryerson University, and a three-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.
“On the Vinyl Cafe and in communities across the country, Stuart McLean told uniquely Canadian stories. We’ll miss his humour and humanity,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted on Twitter.
“RIP Stuart McLean. A great story teller & a fine man. Condolences to Dave & Morley & all at Wongs Scottish Meat Pies. #DaveCooksTheTurkey,” CBC host Rick Mercer wrote on Twitter.
McLean is survived by his three sons Christopher, Robert and Andrew, and grandchildren Ramona and Oscar.