Helpful Harry is dead.
Art Burnell, a former newspaper report in Oakville whose weekly column "Helpful Harry" entertained thousands of Halton and Peel residents, died of cancer in his Oakville home, Friday.
He was 70.
Burnell was born in Toronto in 1920 and began his journalism career at age 19 with the Toronto Telegram daily newspaper.
During World War II, he served in North Africa with the Canadian Cavalry.
After the war he returned to the Telegram where he continued reporting until joining the Hamilton Spectator.
He began the "Helpful Harry" column in 1966, while bureau chief of the Spectator's Oakville office.
The column included tips and advice of household and handyman problems. Though a heart attack force him to retire in 1976, Burnell's column was kept on and published in the Burlington Gazette, the Mississauga News and the Oakville Beaver.
While working for the Spectator's Oakville office, Burnell became a popular fixture around the police headquarters and town hall.
"He was a hardworking reporter," said Ward 3 councillor and former Oakville police chief Fred Oliver. "He was honest, one who could be trusted. And he was hardworking. It wasn't unusual to see him at the police station at 5:30 in the morning."
Hamilton Spectator report Rob Austin echoed Oliver's comments.
"I don't know when the man got any sleep," said Austin, who met Burnell upon joining the Spectator in 1970. "He was first up doing the police checks in the morning and last gone covering council at night. He had a great network of contacts and always had lots of tips. He covered anything that happened in Oakville."
Burnell is best remembered by his wife Joyce as a man who never did anything half way.
"He was a man who never allowed himself to become bored," she said. "After his hear attack, he became an avid golfer. After arthritis stopped that he became an avid gardener and when he couldn't do that anymore, he became a better cook than me. He really went in depth in anything he did."
Burnell also had a fantastic sense of humor, recalled his wife.
"He could always walk into a strange situation and break everybody up," she said. "He was fun loving, very generous and kind."
