Hilary Brown was the first female foreign correspondent for the American Television network, ABC News. She was then a token woman in a man’s world. From 1973, for more than 35 years, she reported from trouble-spots around the globe. She was once profiled on TVO’s ‘The Agenda’ as ‘Canada’s best-ever female foreign correspondent.’ This embarrasses her.

She was one of the last journalists to be lifted by helicopter from the roof of the American Embassy in Saigon in 1975, during the Communist takeover of South Vietnam. One of her ABC reports later appeared in the motion picture ‘The Deer Hunter’ in what Brown calls her ‘fifteen seconds of fame.’

 

During the 1980s she was an Anchor for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto, an experience she describes as ‘death by hairspray.’ She later returned to ABC News for another 18 years to do the work she loved best: foreign news reporting.

 

She was married to the British biographer and BBC correspondent John Bierman, who she met in Pakistan during the Indo-Pak war of 1971. He became her mentor, best friend, and father of her only child. Their life together, in half a dozen countries over three decades, is a great love story that only ended with his death in 2006. As a widow, Brown continued to work at what she calls ‘the best job in the world’ before she finally hung up her trench coat. Two years later she fell in love with a Canadian businessman who, until the global pandemic, flew her around the world in the relentless pursuit of pseudo-extreme sports for which she was totally unqualified. She says he keeps her in a constant state of excitement and fear, which is just like being a foreign correspondent, all over again.

 

"Foreign Correspondents are like war tourists in flak jackets,” she writes. “They document human misery and then move on."  But they feel compassion and guilt. Years later, she went back to Asia, to the camps of the Vietnamese Boat People, and sponsored a family as immigrants to her native Canada. It was her Reporter’s Atonement.

Her memoir is a self-deprecating account of a charmed life in the age of feminism.

 

With risk, came both triumph and disaster, and as the poet said, she treats those two imposters just the same. She writes of heartache, concussion and clinical depression, guilt and atonement, as well as the complete, triple-distilled thrill of the job, writing ‘the first rough draft of history.’ Her memoir is a riveting, self-deprecating account of a charmed life in the age of feminism.

 

Her books will be available.

Marnie, trustee of Marie McGee estate, recounted with photographs Marie's remarkable and moving life story who contracted and suffered from polio at age 4.   Marie was determined to walk again and succeeded in her battle living until the age of 89 and it was her experience with polio which led her to donate in her Will the remarkable gift celebrated today.   President Rick produced a large cheque from our Club’s Foundation payable to The Rotary Foundation of Canada in the sum of $811,000 and Robert O’Brien as a director of TRFC received the cheque in proxy for and introduced Dean Rohrs, Chair of TRFC.  

 

Following Dean, Past RI President and Chair of the TRF Board of Trustees John Germ addressed us and the significance of this gift as he declared that RI is on track for the eradication of polio by 2025 with cases in Afghanistan still to be treated and immunized.  Our good friend Past District Governor and Past VP of RI Dr. Bob Scott who has been a champion of PolioPlus since 1985 closed our Program with class and distinction.  

There was question and answer with each of Dean, John and Dr Bob describing personal highlights in their polio eradication journeys.   Chair of TRFC Dean Rohrs said it best that this remarkable gift made her heart sing and today’s program left all Rotarians moved and touched with their hearts singing, looking forward to the day when polio is officially declared eradicated. 

 

 

 

April 1st - another Hybrid meeting! - National Club - must register with office@rotarytoronto.com