Knowlton Nash - Career

Career

As a 12-year old in 1939, Nash was a newspaper boy selling the Toronto Star and Toronto Telegram at the corner of Bathurst and Eglinton for three cents a copy. Nash began his career working for The Globe and Mail in the 1940s before becoming an editor with British United Press in Canada, moving quickly up from night editor at the Toronto bureau in 1947, to bureau chief at Halifax, Vancouver, and then Toronto. In 1951, he moved to Washington, D.C. where he worked as the Director of Information for the International Federation of Agricultural Producers, reporting on international politics as relates to agriculture. For IFAP he travelled regularly to London, Paris, Rome, New York, occasionally to Africa and Latin America, and represented the federation's interests at the United Nations.

After years reporting on the inner circles of Washington politics to IFAP, he started freelance reporting, for CBC television and radio, the Financial Post, Maclean's, and daily newspapers across Canada. In 1961 he became CBC's Washington correspondent. In Washington Nash covered major historical events, among them the Cuban missile crisis and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He interviewed five U.S. Presidents, seven Prime Ministers of Canada, four Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, Che Guevara, and other major figures in his time. He was one of the last reporters to interview New York state U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy before his assassination.

He joined the CBC's management as head of news and information programming in 1968, moving back to Toronto, and became anchor of The National following the departure of Peter Kent in 1978. During his tenure, the program expanded from 15 minutes to the first segment of an hour long news package with The National being followed by The Journal, which featured interviews and documentaries.

In 1988, Nash offered to retire from his duties at The National in order to keep Peter Mansbridge from accepting an offer to host the morning news at the American network CBS. Nash left his position as CBC News' senior anchor and chief correspondent in 1988, yet remained active in Canadian journalism circles. He hosted various programs on CBC Newsworld in the 1990s, and from 1990 to 2004 was host of the CBC's educational series "News in Review". Knowlton Nash officially retired from the CBC on November 28, 1992 – his last official duty was anchoring The National.

As of 2012, Nash lives in Toronto with his wife, former CBC personality Lorraine Thomson, and his family.