Cambridge author shares rich memories of 40-year career in journalism

After a career in newspapers spanning 40 years, Cambridge's Bob Burtt decided to try out his writing skills in another field, and so he became an author. 

He released his first book in 2014 and recently released his fourth book — a memoir called Life In the Trenches:Tales From The Golden Age of Journalism/A Reporter's Story. 

In the new book, Burtt shares the extraordinary experiences he had during his 40 years as a reporter and editor and the people he met along the way. 

Bob Burtt joined CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition and host Craig Norris to talk about the book.

The following has been edited for length and clarity. Audio can be found at the bottom of the page.

Craig Norris: Tell me a bit about your career and where you worked.

Bob Burtt: I started out in the late '60s in Milton. It was a small paper called The Canadian Champion. The population was about 6,500 at the time — a wonderful place to start a career.

We had a newsroom that amounted to a small cubicle for the editor, and two desks for reporters outside. We were in the basement and there was a washroom there that served as a darkroom. So if anybody had to go to the washroom while you're developing negatives, they had to wait.

Norris: Did you move directly to The Record?

Burtt: I worked for about seven different papers. I left Milton, went up to Kirkland Lake for a year then came back to Milton, stayed for another 10 years and a friend convinced me that I really needed to get more experience.

There was a new paper opening in Waterloo and it was going to rival The Record at one point, they thought. At any rate, I had the opportunity there to work for a guy that had been the national editor of The Globe and Mail and so I thought it would be a great learning opportunity. The problem was, he was fired before I got there.

I left there after about four months when the paper looked like it was going to dissolve and I got an opportunity to go to Edmonton for a job that, as it turned out, didn't exist. By the time I got there, they had budget cuts, so it was back to Milton to freelance for the Toronto Star for a while. I made good money doing that but then I took a job at Cambridge Times as the editor and then manager, and then transferred to The Record in 1984 where I spent 24 years.

Norris: Was it just time to retire, or was there something that facilitated the decision to leave that and become an author? 

Burtt: Actually no, I hadn't considered retiring at the time but they came in with a buyout, it was a fairly lucrative buyout and you had the choice of taking the buyout and trying to figure out what you wanted to do next, or staying. But you didn't know what job you would have if you stayed and I had been in environment for most of my 24 years and didn't want to start over.

Norris:  Your fourth book is your newest one  —  In the Trenches:Tales From The Golden Age of Journalism/A Reporter's Story, tell us about what stories from your life people can expect to read.

Burtt: Well, it's really the story about a kid that followed a dream. I knew I wanted to be a reporter when I was in elementary school, but my school principal told me that I should consider other alternatives because I didn't have what it would take to make it there. Forty years later, I'd like to have that conversation over with him again. 

I was a really bashful kid. I weighed about 160 lbs, six foot two, and they used to say that if I stood sideways at a party, nobody would know I was there because I was quiet. But I overcame a lot of that. I was really sort of nervous among people sometimes. I had the opportunity early on to go and cover a political rally. The premier, John Roberts, was going to be there and at that time he was sort of like a god for me. I hopped up onto the stage after to get a picture, approached him and I started to talk but no words came out.

As it turned out, he just smiled. The other two of our cabinet ministers that were there that I wanted in the picture joined in and it all worked out well.

I went to school in Ottawa and had a part-time job at the Journal in the evenings. Often what I'd like to do is just skip classes if there weren't too many in the afternoon, go down to the House of Commons, sit and watch Question Period. And I'd wait for John Diefenbaker to talk. He had this baritone voice and it just rumbled through the chamber and at the time I thought he was just the greatest guy.

I had a chance when I was working in Milton probably or seven or eight years later, Diefenbaker was on a tour and I think was promoting a book or something. But it turned out the railcar that he had used early in his elections was at Campbellville. They invited me up to meet him and chat with him. There's four or five of us in this railway car, and he started telling stories and he was just a master. Nobody could tell stories quite like him. I really felt bad for his political aide who had the job of getting him out of there so he could catch a plane to wherever he was going. And it was always one more story, one more story.

Norris: You've written this memoir about the golden age of journalism, what do you think of the state of journalism right now?

Burtt: I think it's really sad where it is right now. I was looking at The Record this morning and I think it's 16 or 18 pages and when it arrives at the door, I still get it every morning along with The Globe and Mail, you don't hear it thud against the door.

It used to be that the paper would have that heft to it and have all kinds of stories. I fear where the next shoe is going to fall in terms of The Record, whether it's going to turn around and prosper or just go the way some of the other papers have gone. And it's hard to imagine Kitchener being without a daily newspaper.

Norris: What's next for you and your writing?

Burtt: I'm not sure. I'm considering a number of things but I don't have a firm idea. I'd like to do something on local history. I've done some of that and I'm really interested in that.

My first book was the story about the Elmira water crisis and had a historical point to it. The second one was about a rare Charitable Reserve and that went back to the last Ice Age, and then the third one was a story about water and it had a history of water supply in the region.

The Morning Edition - K-W8:45Former journalist Bob Burtt recounts his time as a reporter in new memoir

Cambridge's Bob Burtt spent 40 years as a journalist and now he's sharing stories from his time as a reporter and editor in a new book.