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HUDSON, Godfrey A Pioneer in Canadian Radio Journalism A few weeks shy of what would have been his 99th birthday, Godfrey Eadric Hudson, international award-winning pioneer of Radio Journalism in Canada, sadly passed away June 18, 2019. During the Great Depression, growing up with poverty and tragedy on a farm near Melfort, Saskatchewan, he heard broadcasts from distant radio stations and was immediately transported, enthralled by the possibilities. He formed a vision about how radio could be employed not only to provide interesting and effective information but also to bring communities closer together by doing this. In 1941, at the brave, young age of 20, he became News Editor of CFQC Radio in Saskatoon. His objective was to create the best private radio station news service in North America. And he succeeded. With great energy and innovation, Godfrey built the newsroom from a staff of one to a staff of nine, and expanded it to the new medium of television. In 1953, in Washington, D.C., the Radio Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) recognized him for running the Most Outstanding Radio News Operation on the North American Continent. It was the first time this award had gone to a Canadian station. Canada's Prime Minister at the time, Louis St. Laurent, further praised his groundbreaking work and the award as an "excellent indication of the service you are performing for the Canadian people". And he won that award again in 1954, as well as winning Canadian Broadcaster Magazine's Beaver Award for pioneering radio editorial in Canada. Godfrey was lured to Toronto in 1955 to become a Senior Editor for Broadcast News, followed by an unusual move into print journalism, soon becoming Queen's Park Bureau Chief for the Globe & Mail. Godfrey married medical lab technician Gudrun Stefanie Gunnlaugson in 1956. In 1961, as News, Sports and Public Affairs director, he began building up the news organization at the Toronto radio station, CKEY. Tragedy intervened in 1964. As his wife was in one hospital giving birth to their third son, Godfrey was in a different hospital, stricken with cancer, where his entire right leg and hip were amputated. Doctors gave him six months to live. Fiercely determined to find a way to keep going, he took to exercise, and walked on his crutches for a mile and a half each day. There were times when the intensity of the pain from exercising almost paralyzed him, but after pausing momentarily to avoid falling, he kept on walking. And walking. For each of the following 55 years he continued his daily exercise routine, regardless of weather, only resorting to a wheelchair in his final year. Easily recognizable with only one leg and crutches, he became well-known for his daily walks in his North York neighborhood. People saw how, despite having to stop frequently to restore the circulation in his hands, he kept walking, up and down the roads, day in and day out, determined to live. His fierce commitment to keep walking was an inspiration to countless people who saw him, many of whom only knew him as the man with one leg who never gave up. In latter years, some of these, strangers to him, would periodically stop to chat and tell him that he was a significant part of their life, even though they'd never actually met. Health issues related to the massive amputation forced him to retire in 1968, but Godfrey's groundbreaking contributions to news broadcasting continued to be recognized, receiving the prestigious President's Award in 1981 by the RTNDA. Godfrey's beloved wife, Gudrun Stefanie Hudson passed away in 2016. She had cared and supported him unflinchingly, selflessly providing and advocating for him through the decades with disability. The roles reversed later in life, where he became her fierce advocate and caregiver as she bravely fought the ravages of Lewy Body Dementia. He was predeceased by his parents Eadric and Kristine, his brothers Edward and Harold, and his sisters Winnifred and Mary. Godfrey and Stefanie Hudson are greatly missed by their three sons, Kenneth, Richard and Timothy, as well as by the many people their lives have touched. |
