Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Keate, Stuart
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1913-1987
History
James Stuart ("Stu") Keate was born in Vancouver on October 13, 1913. He graduated from UBC in 1935, majoring in English and History. While at UBC, he served as Friday editor of the biweekly Ubvssey. On graduation he went directly into journalism as a sports writer for the Vancouver Province newspaper. Between 1937 and 1939 he worked as a feature writer on the Toronto Star. In 1939 he returned to Vancouver to work for the Province.
During the war, Keate served in the Royal Canadian Navy as a naval war correspondent. From 1942 to 1945 he was an information officer in the north Atlantic and Pacific theatres. He retired as a lieutenant commander. At war's end, he joined the staff of Time Life magazines in New York and Montreal.
An invitation from Calgary financier, sportsman and newspaper magnate, Max Bell, brought Keate back to British Columbia as publisher of the Victoria Daily Times, a post he held
for 14 years before moving to Vancouver as publisher of The Sun.
In 1964 he was elected president of the Canadian Daily Newspaper Publishers Association and from 1964-1966, President of The Canadian Press.
As an active community worker, Keate raised $265,000 for a Salvation Army senior citizens' lodge and $350,000 as honorary chairman of an endowment fund for Brock House. At the international level, he was founding chairman of the Canadian Committee of the International Press Institute, which embraced over 60 newspapers. He was also a director of Freedom of the Press Committee of the Inter-American Press Association.
Keate was a member of the Canada Council for two terms from 1963-1969; of the UBC Senate from 1955-1970 and of the Board of Governors of UBC from 1966-1970.
After retirement in 1978, Keate wrote a memoir of his 45-year career called Paper Boy. It was published in 1980. Keate was married in 1939 to the former Letha Meilicke. They had two children; Richard and Kathryn. Keate died on March 1, 1987.