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Fred McGuinness
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Writer, journalist, historian.
Born at Brandon on 31 January 1921, son of William Frederick McGuinness (1884-1933) and Isabella Louisa Pope (1889-1966), he attended Park School and Earl Oxford School, quitting to work for CP Telegraph as a messenger and later as a Morse operator. During the Second World War, he joined the Royal Canadian Navy, being discharged in 1941 with a disability pension resulting from a shipboard accident. Returning to Manitoba, he completed his education at St. Paul’s College and United College in Winnipeg, also taking two years of arts and science at the University of Manitoba but withdrew in his third year due to lingering effects of his wartime injuries.
From 1946 to 1951, he was a writer-researcher for the federal Department of Labour, and from 1952 to 1956 was Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Golden Jubilee Committee that organized that province's 50th birthday celebrations. His long career in journalism began in 1956 with a ten-year stint as publisher of the Medicine Hat News and Vice-President of Southam News. From 1966 to 1987, he was Associate Editor of the Brandon Sun and Vice-President of Sun Publishing Limited. He wrote a regular column in the Sun under the pseudonym of “F. A. Rosser”.
In retirement, he worked as a freelance writer for the Reader’s Digest, a writer-lecturer for the WESTARC Group, and a lecturer in journalism at Brandon University. His column Neighborly News was carried by 70 community newspapers in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. He wrote or co-wrote several books, including Pride of the Land: An Affectionate History of Brandon’s Agricultural Exhibitions (1985; co-written with Ken Coates, for which he won a Margaret McWilliams Award), Only in Canada: Kinsmen and Kinettes (1987, co-written with Ken Coates), Manitoba, the Province and the People (1987, co-written with Ken Coates), The Keystone Province: An Illustrated History of Manitoba Enterprise (1988, co-written with Ken Coates), Wheat City: A Pictorial History of Brandon (1988), Bootstrap Three: Enterprise Stories from Rural Manitoba (1994), and Ten to Ten: A History of the Canadian Credit Union Movement at its 75th Year. For nearly 20 years, he was a regular correspondent for the CBC radio program “Morningside” and was writer-commentator for the weekly broadcast “Neighbourly News from the Prairies”.
He was one of 12 directors for the Canadian Centennial Commission that planned for commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation in 1967. He served as a Director of the Medicine Hat Chamber of Commerce (two terms as President), Alberta Chamber of Commerce, International Peace Garden, Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba, Royal Manitoba Winter Fair, and Manitoba Centennial Corporation, and helped to fundraise for the Keystone Centre and the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium. He served on the Historic Sites Advisory Board of Manitoba (1982-?).
For over fifty years, Fred McGuinness committed his unique talents of communication to the understanding, appreciation and celebration of life in rural western Canada. His recollections reflected a deep curiosity about life around him, his enviable ability to find the humour in every situation, and his unique ability to convey action, ideas, and nuance. When McGuinness received an honorary degree from Brandon University in 1997, one supporting writer characterized him as “the undisputed Dean of community newspaper editors and journalists.” He was, asserted another, “… a philosopher, a lecturer, a specialist in arboriculture (especially of the Christmas tree variety), a protector of grammatical English, an advisor generous with his time, and on top of it all, a mighty fine gentleman.”
In 1948, he married Alice Christine Thomson (c1922-2009) of Port Arthur [now Thunder Bay], Ontario and they had a daughter and three sons. In recognition of his community service, he received a Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal (1977) and a Golden Boy Citizenship Award (?). He was given honorary life membership in the Manitoba Community Newspaper Association and the Alberta Chamber of Commerce. He was inducted into the Manitoba Order of the Buffalo Hunt (1992), the Order of Manitoba (2002), and the Order of Canada (2004). He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Brandon University (1997).
He died at Brandon on 22 March 2011 and was buried in the Brandon Cemetery. His papers are held at the S. J. McKee Archives.
See also:
An Interview with Fred McGuinness by Gerald A. Friesen
Manitoba History, Number 2, 1981Cool Things in the Collection: The Fred McGuinness Collection by Christy M. Henry and Suyoko Tsukamoto
Manitoba History, Number 81, Summer 2016Historic Sites of Manitoba: Bell Block / Victoria Block / Daymin Court (1202 Rosser Avenue, Brandon)
His articles for the Manitoba Historical Society:
A Memoir of Old St. Paul’s College
Manitoba History, Number 58, June 2008A Memoir of the CPR Telegraph Office
Manitoba History, Number 59, October 2008
Marriage registration [William Frederick McGuinness, Isabella Louise Pope], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Birth registration [Frederick George McGuinness], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“Their new year begins in Ottawa,” Winnipeg Free Press, 22 October 1966.
“Dauphin teacher on historic sites board,” Dauphin Herald, 26 October 1982, page 30.
Obituary [Alice Christine McGuinness], Brandon Sun, 18 August 2009, page 16.
“Brandon’s own voice of the Prairies falls silent,” Winnipeg Free Press, 23 March 2011, page A11.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 2 April 2011, page B15.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Tom Mitchell.
Page revised: 18 December 2022
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