Bob Mackin News Reporter IT sours simple, but it’s oh, so true. people thar make the nce 1969, hundreds of peo- helped make the one you're ga success. In the 25 years since Rex Weyler became t first Inquiring porter, little has changed on the ‘North Shore. Among the questions he popped in the popular streeter teature was whether a third crossing of Burrard Inlet was needed. “That was an issue nm back then, should there be another bridge, another tunnel. This was before (SeaBus).” Weyler often strayed from the hot political topic of the day, sometimes asking schoolchildren for their thoughts or chatting up flagwomen at road construction sites to find out if they enjoyed their jobs. Weyler, who went to Occidental College in Los Angeles, moved north to avoid the draft. He was hired by publisher Peter Speck as a photographer but eventually became editor of the News’ predecesso:, the North Shore Shopper, in late 1974. “It was a pretty small opcration at the time, We had a little darkroom there. We were doing everything, all the layout with the wax machine. his was in the days of typesetting, before computers. It was all cut and paste, scissors and Exacto knives. We were making all our screen pho- tographs there.” Weyler saw the weekly Shopper evolve into the News. As 1975 wore on, Shopper shrank on the masthead while News grew, reflecting the for- mer classified paper's shift into seri- ous journalism. But it wasn’t always that serious. rr remembers publishing the front page headline “Drugs suspect- ider goes berserk” under three photos der LSD. A third spider was under no chemical influence. The acid arachnid made a perfect web, while the coffee webspinner had poor results. “We got letters from people sus- pecting we were advocating drug use,” he recalls. Weyler took the summer of 1975 off to join Greenpeace’s anti-whal- ing voyage with Bob Hunter. He returned for a short time, but moved on to publish the Greenpeace Chronicles until 1979. After a stint with a new age magazine in Boston, Weyler returned to B.C. and started Hollyhock, a seminar/resort facility on Cortez Island. Last September he returned to the Lower Mainland as publisher of Shared Vision magazine. “Whar I enjoyed about that time was roaming North Vancouver and chasing police and ambulances, tak- ing photos and writing stories. It was a fun time for me. Being a young guy, wanting to get into journalism and having an opportunity to take photos and write news storics.” The first time Bob Hunter came to the North Shore News was to tap publisher Peter Speck’s business men. Hunter founded Greenpeace and sought help for the fledgling envi- ronmental organization. Weyler con- nected the nwo men and the rest was history. “Peter had been running this and Methven was the only guy we knew who knew anything about making and manag- ing money,” Hunter remembered. Soeck helped Greenpeace secure a bank loan when he introduced Hunter to a top-ranking Royal Bank loans officer. “He sat down and looked at the * NEWS file photo NEWS’ publisher Peter Speck (right) bids photographer/editor Rex Weyler bon voyage in 1975. Weyier and Bob Hunter set sail on a Greenpeace anti-whaling expedition. The News played an important rofe in the early years of the world’s most influential environmental organization. chart and said, right I'll give you a $200,000 line of credit! We thought, wow, that really worked. Then he opened the bar and started passing out drinks. Turned out it had nothing to do with our cashflow projection chart. It turned out he believed himself to be a reincarnated Todian chiet? OK, that works tor mer" Hunter, whe J trom Manitoba, was a reporter and columnist with othe | Wiaaiper Tribune and Vancouver Sun. He cventually joined the News as a columnist, sriting regularly from the carly CSOs to the carly “90s. He moved to Toronto, or as he says, carl and gave up the column. here Po was sitting in Toronto somehow being involved as a voice of West and North Vancouver, | remember writing one piece think- ing what the hell is the premier’s name again? | thought J had béen out of the loop here, so | stopped doing thar.” He new reports on environme tal issues for Toronto's pioncering City Last fall he took another duty as the station's newspaper crit- ic. “fo gee up at 4:30 in the morning and review all the newspapers, the four (Toronto) newspapers and a cameraman cones over to my house we tape a few minute segment where islam the hell out of the newspapers and have a lot of fun. I've been involved with newspapers since 1959, so T know the game pretty well.” Years before Vicki Gabereau became one of the most-listened-to women in Canada, she joined the rth Shore Shopper to brush up her typing skills and lend a hand to Speck. “Emet him through some friends and he was starting a paper and he needed someone to help him, so I did,” said Gabereau. The West Vancouver secondary graduate broadcast a daily gab show on CBC Radio from Vancouver for 15 vears until she left for the bright lights of television at VTV. Gabereau isn’t the only on-air tal- ent at VIV who spent some time under Speck's auspices, Entertainment gal-about-cown Naamua Delaney spent the summer of 1995 at the News as an editorial ant in the newsroom. Back thea was known us Naamua Dodu. Notables: sor Barrett Fisher is enjoyi-1g in Whistler where she vice-presid with the Whistler Resort As: tion. Another former editor, Shane McCune, js a senior reporter across Burrard Inlet with the Province, Just upstairs in the Vancouver Sun’s photo department is shutterbug Ian Smith. Former national ad sales manager Bruce Methven made nwo career changes. The aspiring journalist is now a provincial government com- munications officer with — the Ministry of Transportation and Highways. British Properties’ gossip maven Joy Metcalfe was the News’ original Bright Lights contributor, long before it became Bright Lights She spent more than 12 years with a daily mini-show at CKNW radio, until the popular AM _ radio station made some unpopular layoffs this week.