War Hero, Mike Cassidy Passes on...

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Press Review Publisher, war hero Mike Cassidy dies
TORONTO, March 18 /CNW/ - War hero, businessman and magazine publisher
Mike Cassidy died of prostate cancer on Thursday, March 17 in Toronto.
He was 81.
Before his death, Cassidy picked out the place he wanted to be buried,
next to the five other members of his 420 Squadron, 6 Group RCAF bomber crew,
who died after being shot down over Holland on April 25, 1944. After the plane
went down, Cassidy eluded Nazi troops for two days before he was captured and
held as a prisoner of war for nine months.
When he first visited his crew's final resting place in the village of
Zuilichem, Holland in 1985, Cassidy had thought: "This is where I should have
been." And so he made special arrangements to join his brothers when his time
came. After 60 years, Cassidy will finally rest beside his fallen brothers.
He is believed to be the first ever Canadian to receive such permission.
It is a right those who knew him say he earned a hundred times over.
"He is a true Canadian hero," said Toronto Sun columnist Joe Warmington.
Following the war, Cassidy returned to Canada to start a successful
marketing career and hooked up with an independent inventor from the U.S.
Cassidy then took part in the launch of Press Journal magazine. When that
folded, he started Press Review magazine in 1977, a periodical distributed to
newsrooms from coast-to-coast that has continued its successful run for more
than 25 years.
Cassidy loved everything about the media and could be seen cruising
through Toronto and Ottawa newsrooms in the wee hours of the morning to grab a
copy of the paper fresh off the presses and say hello to the editors and
writers on the night shift.
"He's a fascinating man," said Sheila Reagan, assistant city editor at
the Toronto Sun and editor emeritus at Press Review. Reagan first met Cassidy
in the early '80s. "He was an incredible character who had a very wild and
wonderful life. And he lived it to the fullest," she said. "He's always been a
fighter. He's never really backed down from any kind of a fight."
A generous, kind man, his goal always seemed to be to make people around
him smile. Cassidy is survived by his wife, Jana, his nine children and
numerous grandchildren. Visitation is tonight at Rosar-Morrison Funeral Home &
Chapel, 467 Sherbourne Street, Toronto, from 7 to 9 p.m. Mass is Saturday at
St. Michael's Cathedral.

/NOTE TO PHOTO EDITORS: A photo accompanying this release is available on
the CNW Photo Network and archived at http://photos.newswire.ca. Additional
archived images are also available on the CNW Photo Archive website at
http://photos.newswire.ca. Images are free to accredited members of the media/





For further information: Rob Granatstein, (416) 947-8359 or
Press Review, (416) 368-0512;
Archived images on this organization are available through CNW Photo Archive
at http://photos.newswire.ca. Images are free to members of media.



RCAF veteran and Press Review Publisher Mike Cassidy who died March 17 in Toronto, salutes his fallen comrades at a recent remembrance service.