Jack Alva Dobson
Section 8, Lot 1298
York Cemetery
Jack Dobson was born in Toronto on December 12, 1919. He attended Jarvis Collegiate and Victoria College at the University of Toronto. He left school before graduating with his Bachelor of Arts degree to join Research Enterprises in Leaside, which apparently engaged in secret research for the federal government during the Second World War. With an avid interest in both journalism and photography, Dobson went to work for The Globe and Mail in their photo laboratory in 1947, eventually becoming a two-way man — both photographer and reporter. During his years with the Globe, Dobson served as president of the Toronto Newspaper Guild (now the Southern Ontario Newspaper Guild) for six years, and later as executive director, also for six years. In his 37 years as a newsman, Jack Dobson worked some of the biggest stories of the day. In fact, he broke a date with his future wife to cover the Noronic fire. (The S. S. Noronic was a cruise ship which was docked at the foot of Yonge Street on the morning of September 17, 1949, when it caught fire and burned, resulting in the death of 119 people.) When he retired from The Globe and Mail, Dobson went to work with Canada Manpower, settling unemployment insurance claims. Jack Dobson was just a few days shy of his 66th birthday when he died on December 7, 1985.