Arthur Black, well-loved Canadian humourist, author, CBC radio personality and Salt Spring Islander, has died at the age of 74.
Black was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer on Jan. 2, 2018. He chose to die with medical assistance at Lady Minto Hospital on Salt Spring Island on Feb. 21.
He and his partner Lynne Raymond have lived on the island since 1995.
Black first worked for CBC radio as a farm market reporter in Thunder Bay in 1972, but became a household name across Canada through his CBC radio program Basic Black, which ran nationally on Saturday mornings from 1983 to 2002. After retiring from Basic Black his voice could still be heard for about a decade on the CBC Victoria All Points West show with a segment called Planet Salt Spring.
Black also hosted popular TV shows called Weird Homes and Weird Wheels in the late 1990s.
Black is the author of 19 books and won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour three times.
He began writing a weekly newspaper column in 1976 in Thunder Bay for a paper called Lakehead Living. As a syndicated column it was read across the country and around the world for the next 40 years.
After moving to Salt Spring, Black contributed his time and talents to countless fundraisers on and off the island. Most recently he was seen on Knowledge Network, helping promote regular fund drives for the public television station, and reading the humorous A Child’s Christmas in Scarborough at a Grandmothers to Grandmothers fundraiser for the Stephen Lewis Foundation at the Salt Spring United Church in December 2017.
The family respectfully requests privacy at this time.