ruminations | Julie Mollins

MollinsWestminsterPress — Carl Mollins at Westminster Press in London.

MOLLINS, Carl Wellington. B.A.; journalist

Passed away May 28, 2016 age 84 at St Michael’s Hospital due to injuries sustained in a fall on his daily walk along Toronto’s lakeshore.

During his career, after a year spent working as a porter for the Canadian Pacific Railway, he served as an editor and correspondent throughout Europe, in Africa, the Middle East, China, Latin America as well as all regions of the United States, Canada and the Arctic.

Carl Mollins served as an editor on the Reuters NorDesk on Fleet Street in London in the 1950s. Editors working on the “North American Desk” translated British copy into English suitable for North American readers.

After travelling to England he worked at Whiteleys Department Store and the Hudson Bay Company in 1955, starting his professional career in journalism as Assistant to Editor, Westminster Press, also in London, UK, 1955-56; he subsequently served as Sub-Editor, Reuters, London, UK, 1956-61; Canadian Press correspondent, Toronto 1962-1965, London, UK, 1965-68; Canadian Press Reporter, Parliamentary Editor, News Editor, Ottawa 1968-73; Ottawa Bureau Chief, Toronto Star 1973-74; Assistant Ottawa Bureau Chief, The Canadian Press 1974-80; Canadian Press Chief Correspondent, Washington, D.C., 1980-84; Assistant Managing Editor, Executive Editor, Washington Editor, General Editor, Maclean’s 1984-2000; Contributing Editor, MoneySense and Canadian Business Magazines 1996-2001.

Sessional Lecturer, Carleton University School of Journalism 1974-80.

Author/editor: “Maclean’s Canada’s Century” (1999), “Harry Whitfield Mollins: World War One Diaries” (2015).

Born in Windsor, N.S., June 25, 1931 to the late Vera Grace (nee Nickerson) and Rev. Harry Whitfield Mollins, he attended First Avenue Public School in Ottawa, Brantford Collegiate Institute in Brantford, Ontario, graduating from Bloor Collegiate Institute in Toronto in 1950; He earned a B.A. from Victoria College, University of Toronto in 1954.

Loved and remembered in Canada by wife Joan (nee Levett), daughters Tracey and Julie; sister Sybil Ahearne, sister-in-law Bettie Mollins; nieces Kathleen, Kellie, Lyndsay, Suzanne, Amanda; nephews Christian, Dylan, Job, Liam, Paul, Yusif and in the UK by nieces April, Ariana, Cathy, Charlotte, Daisy, Eleanor, Jill, Lizzie, Sara; nephews Darryl, Geoffrey, Ian, Sam, Stephen, Toby. Predeceased by sister Beulah and brother Walter.

The family are grateful to staff and volunteers at the Trauma & Neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit at St Michael’s Hospital for their kind care during his stay.

Friends and family are welcome to attend a memorial garden party at the Mollins residence on Sunday, June 12.

One of Carl’s favourite places to give money was The Stop Community Food Center – a charity in Toronto where he and Joan have made donations for more than 30 years.

If you would like to contribute in his memory, donations can be made through The Stop website at https://thestop.thankyou4caring.org/. You can indicate in the tribute Information section at the bottom of the page that your donation is in memory of Carl.

More obituaries:

The Globe and Mail: Carl Mollins, 84, was a journalist’s journalist

The Stop Community Food Centre: Remembering Carl Mollins

Paul Chisholm: Carl Mollins & me

Cy Fox – Carl Mollins: Some notes

Maclean’s magazine: Carl Mollins 1931 – 2016

Canadian Press: Journalist Carl Mollins of the Canadian Press, Maclean’s dead at 84

The Baron: Obituary – Carl Mollins

Rose’s Cantina: Carl Mollins – Renaissance Man

Toronto Star: Death Notice

Globe and Mail: Death Notice

Living in a remote historic Mexican village established by the Aztecs is as romantic as one might expect.

And yet, despite the many pleasures on offer — including almost nightly fireworks and fiestas –the experience is slightly deflationary after residing amid the hustle and bustle of London’s South Bank and Toronto’s trendy Seaton Village.

Apart from walks, gardening and the odd dinner party, it seems that all else socially inspiring occurs in places other than here.

At this high altitude, in the Valley of Mexico near the city of Texcoco northeast of Mexico City, days are hot, evenings are cool, the air is thin and breathing at times laborious.

To fill the void, after a hiatus of many years, I’ve taken up my paintbrush again, but this time around not for oil or acrylic, but to learn the fine art of watercolor in the nearby village of San Nicolas Tlaminca. I’ve also started drawing again, eschewing familiar pencils, pens and charcoal to learn the fine art of pastels in the village of Huexotla, near Chapingo.

The practice reminds me of days gone by when I pursued fine art studies at the former Jackson School, a campus of the former Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., recently visited for the first time in many years. I Googled my teachers remembering them fondly.

Sketchy results of current efforts follow, two of which were somewhat surprisingly displayed in a group art exhibition curated by Rosa Galindo at the cultural center in Texcoco in December.

Included in the exhibit — my first “fine” art to appear in a show since I participated in an exhibition in a stairwell at the Corcoran school curated by Tuft and Newman — were “Frida Kahlo’s Garden” and “Marionette.”