Remembering Del MacKenzie
There is old school, and then there was Del MacKenzie old school.
Del's preference for ascots, vintage suits, hats and a good martini was just part of his special brand of old school. The fact so little is known about his 30+ years as a sound technician, writer and senior producer for IDEAS and other CBC programs is another.
As unmistakable a figure as he cut – meet Del once and you never forgot him – he was more than happy to blend into the background of the many national and international stories that carry his name in the credits.
Making history didn't interest Del; recording it as meticulously as possible did.
One of the few times he did speak of his work came in 2014, when Del told IDEAS about his role as sound engineer on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's CBC Massey Lectures in 1967, an assignment he undertook with IDEAS senior producer Janet Somerville.
"One thing that delighted me about Del was his emotional versatility. He could sink into the background, as silent as a cloud, and play the part of the impassive technician whose only responsibility was to monitor the 'levels,'" Janet said recently.
"But if more was needed – if he was called upon to take action, to organize, to lead, to intervene – he could do it with all necessary authority, speed, and decisiveness."
Del was 87 when he spoke to IDEAS about his time recording Dr. King. He was still full of life and only too happy to make the trip from Ottawa to Toronto to see Janet again for the first time since they worked together in 1967.
He arrived at the studio dressed like a hybrid Jesse James/James Bond, in a leather Stetson and pinstripe suit over a turtleneck. And the goatee, of course – the same one he was sporting when he recorded Dr. King 47 years prior.
When he spoke of Dr. King, Del's eyes burned with the excitement of meeting a personal hero. Though an atheist, Del's views on poverty and economic injustice had much in common with the social gospel that guided Dr. King. His longtime partner, the Ottawa artist Mitzi Hauser, said Del "lived the most Christian life of anyone I know."
"He could never walk past an outstretched hand," she said. "He was a socialist who believed in looking after people."
In a pre-interview, Del told me of overhearing Dr. King detailing plans for his Poor People's Campaign in the spring of 1968 that Del was sure had never been revealed elsewhere.
It was a story he had kept under his various trademark hats for nearly 50 years.
Turns out that was typical Del: He didn't talk much about himself, though the incredible stories he could tell.
Being the story just wasn't his place.
Helping others tell their stories was.