Don Tremaine, a longtime television and radio personality with CBC in Nova Scotia, has died.
Tremaine died Sunday, several days after suffering a stroke, CBC reported. He was 91.
Tremaine was the first television newsreader for CBC Nova Scotia when the station went on the air in 1954.
He had joined CBC in 1951 in Sydney, where he worked for a year before transferring to Halifax. He was with the corporation for 36 years, retiring in 1987.
In television, he was best known for his time on the news interview show Gazette and as the first announcer on Don Messer’s Jubilee.
► Watch Don Tremaine introduce an episode of Don Messer's Jubilee and, at the 3:01 mark, sing a duet with Jubilee regular Marg Osburne.
Tremaine was co-host of CBC Radio’s Information morning from 1971 until his retirement.
He was a member of the Order of Canada and also received an honorary doctorate from Saint Mary’s University in Halifax.
According to a biography from SMU, Donald Graham Tremaine was born in Boston to Canadian parents and moved to Halifax as a youngster in 1931. He attended Queen Elizabeth High School, where he gained experience as a radio announcer.
Leaving school after Grade 11, he joined the RCMP’s marine division, where he served for 18 months. He then worked as a radio announcer with CHNS in Halifax for three years before joining CBC.
Throughout his life, Tremaine devoted countless hours to charities in the Halifax area, including the Canadian Cancer Society, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Nova Scotia, the Grace Maternity Hospital and the IWK Children’s Hospital. He also served on the board of the restoration committee for St. Paul’s Cemetery, helping raise $850,000, and was an announcer at the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo.
CBC reported that there will not be a funeral.
