TORONTO (CelebrityAccess) — Peter A. Herrndorf, the influential Canadian journalist, media executive and the former President and CEO Canada’s National Arts Centre, has died. He was 82.
A member of Herrndorf family told the CBC that he died on Saturday at a hospital in Toronto after suffering from cancer.
After graduating in 1962 from the University of Manitoba in Political Science and English, Peter Herrndorf received a law degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax in 1965, and earned his Master’s Degree in Administration at the Harvard Business School in 1970.
He joined the CBC in 1965 as an editor and reporter in the television newsroom in the organization’s Winnipeg newsroom before relocating to Edmonton and later, Toronto, where he served as producer of the network current affairs series “The Way It Is”.
During the 1970s, he oversaw the development and telecasts of current affairs programming such as “The Fifth Estate”, “The Canadian Establishment” and “90 Minutes Live” before eventually becoming Vice President and General Manager of CBC’s English Language Radio and Television Networks.
After completing his tenure at the BBC, he served as publisher of Toronto Life Magazine, and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TVOntario for three terms before stepping down in 1999.
Starting in 1999, Herrndorf spent the next two decades as the President and CEO of the National Arts Centre where he played a key role in the founding of the National Arts Centre Foundation, the NAC Indigenous Theatre and overseeing the $225.4M modernization of the NAC building.
He also helped to establish the National Creation Fund, which helps support Canadian artists in developing careers on national and international stages.
He also served as Chair of Canadian Stage, Stratford Festival, and was named the Founding Director of the Luminato Festival Toronto.
In 2008, Herrndorf was awarded the Order of Ontario for his role in modernizing Canadian broadcasting, and the performing arts and was promoted to the highest rank of the Order of Canada in 2017.
“It is an understatement to say that Peter Herrndorf’s tenure was transformative,” said Guy Pratte, Chair of the NAC’s Board of Trustees in a statement. “He was a visionary who had his feet firmly planted on Canadian soil. And that explains why his dreams of making the NAC a more national and more inclusive centre for the performing arts became a reality: his magical human touch transformed aspiration into realization.”
“Peter Herrndorf had an enormous impact on the performing arts in Canada,” said NAC President and CEO Christopher Deacon. “He fundamentally believed that the National Arts Centre belongs to all Canadians, and that it must reach out beyond its home on Elgin Street to Canadian artists, arts organizations, and communities in every part of the country. For nearly 19 years, that belief informed his vision. He was also unfailingly kind and interested in each and every person – artists, staff and audience. It was an honor and a privilege to work for him, and his NAC family will miss him profoundly. We send our deepest condolences to Peter’s wife Eva Czigler, his children Katherine and Matthew, and the entire Herrndorf family.”
