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| Volume 48, Number 3, Fall 1999 |
Former NASW member and long-time Toronto Star newsman Fred Troyer has died at the age of 86. Troyer was known for his accuracy, his encyclopedic knowledge, and his eccentricity. Born in Toronto, Troyer worked at the Star for 36 years as a copy editor and night assignment editor, and later as editor in charge of television and radio listings.
Troyer was a legend in the Star newsroom for carrying a tremendous number of facts in his head, especially having to do with science. He also had a reputation for being a miser, and proud of it. Examples of his frugality include assigning a reporter to cover an important public meeting and advising him how to get there by a lengthy streetcar ride. Once Troyer came to work without a meal and dispatched a copy boy to go out and buy him a 10-cent sandwich. The lad returned saying there was no such thing. Despite his reputation, throughout his journalistic career Troyer attended scientific conferences through North America on his own money and then sold stories to the Star on a freelance basis. Troyer was fascinated with astronomy and was a member of the Royal Astronomical Society. He often took his telescope to the Canadian National Exhibition so children could get a kick out of the wonders of the night skies as he did.
(Source: Toronto Star obituary.)
Frank E. Carey, an award-winning science writer who retired in 1974 after 34 years with the Associated Press, died November 5 at the age of 90. He wrote about science, medicine and space and had been honored by the American Medical Association and other organizations. He traveled to the South Pole and on a number of astronaut recovery ships. Carey was a magna cum laude graduate of Holy Cross College. He worked for 10 years for the Sun in his native Lowell, MA, before joining AP in Boston. He moved to Washington in the early 1940s. He was a Nieman Fellow in 1947 at Harvard University, where he studied astronomy and physics. He held awards from such groups as the Christopher Foundation and the National Academy of Sciences.
(Source: Washington Post obituary)