Lynch, Charles Birchell

▪ 1995

      Canadian journalist and author (b. Dec. 3, 1919, Cambridge, Mass.—d. July 21, 1994, Ottawa, Ont.), was a gifted storyteller who attracted a wide and loyal readership as the longtime (1958-84) Ottawa syndicated columnist for Southam News Services. Lynch's folksy approach endeared him to English-speaking readers throughout much of the country. In his political commentaries, he boasted of "slipping the readers mickeys of information along with the entertainment." A veteran journalist, Lynch was working as a Reuters correspondent (1943-58) when he reported the D-Day (1944) Normandy landing of Allied troops. The globe-trotting reporter also covered the war crimes trials in Nürnberg before joining Southam. His five-times-a-week column established him as a personality, and the engaging raconteur branched out into radio and television, where his bespectacled, bearded, and rotund figure became a familiar fixture. He was also the author of several books related to Ottawa politics, among them You Can't Print That! (1983), Our Retiring Prime Minister (1983), and A Funny Way to Run a Country (1986). Lynch, who was forced into retirement in 1984, continued to pursue a freelance writing career. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1977.

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