Dow, legendary Toronto biz writer, dies at 77

Alastair Dow, a well-known business reporter and editor for the Toronto Star, died this week at the age of 77.

May Warren of The Star writes, “A business journalist, he won national awards for his stories on Loblaws and ‘the plight of Bay Street brokers near the bottom of a steep stock market decline,’ according to the Star’s archives.

“‘He couldn’t walk down Bay Street for three steps without meeting someone that he knew,’ Rob Dow said. ‘He knew everybody.’

“At the Toronto Press Club in the 1970s, Alastair Dow would enthrall everyone with tales told in a soft voice, making people lean close to hear about anything from his investigation into offshore accounts in the Bahamas to newsroom gossip.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.