{{Short description|Canadian journalist, writer, and historian (1923–2020)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2020}} {{Use Canadian English|date=December 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Bill Fitsell | image = John Walter Bill Fitsell photo.jpeg | alt = Black and white facial photo of an elderly man wearing eyeglasses and a suit and tie | birth_name = John Walter Fitsell | birth_date = {{Birth date|1923|7|25}} | birth_place = Barrie, Ontario, Canada | death_date = {{Death date and age|2020|12|3|1923|7|25}} | death_place = Kingston, Ontario, Canada | employer = ''The Kingston Whig-Standard'' | occupation = Journalist and writer | known_for = Society for International Hockey Research, International Hockey Hall of Fame }}
'''John Walter''' "'''Bill'''" '''Fitsell''' (July 25, 1923{{spnd}}December 3, 2020) was a Canadian journalist, writer and historian. He was a columnist for ''The Kingston Whig-Standard'' from 1961 to 1993, and was the founding president of the Society for International Hockey Research in 1991. He was involved with the International Hockey Hall of Fame from 1969 to 2005, serving as its curator and historian. He published five books during his career including four on the history of ice hockey, and helped organize the Historic Hockey Series to commemorate early ice hockey games played in Kingston, Ontario. He was inducted into both the Kingston and District Sports Hall of Fame and the Lindsay District Sports Hall of Fame, and received the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal.
==Early life== thumb|left|HMCS ''Outremont''|alt=External photo of the ship on the water
John Walter Fitsell was born on July 25, 1923, in Barrie, Ontario,<ref name="KDSHF">{{cite web|url=https://kdshf.ca/inductees/j-w-fitsell/|title=J. W. Fitsell|year=2009|website=Kingston and District Sports Hall of Fame|access-date=December 4, 2020}}</ref><ref name="Queen's">{{cite web|url=http://db-archives.library.queensu.ca/bill-fitsell-fonds|title=J. W. (Bill) Fitsell fonds|website=Queen's University Archives|publisher=Queen's University at Kingston|access-date=December 4, 2020}}</ref> and moved with his family to Lindsay in 1927.<ref name="Puckstruck">{{cite web|url=https://puckstruck.com/2020/11/13/my-first-hockey-game-bill-fitsell/|title=My first hockey game: Bill Fitsell|date=November 13, 2002|website=Puckstruck|access-date=December 4, 2020}}</ref> He had three siblings, his father John Charles Fitsell was a baker, and his mother Beatrice Exell was a homemaker.<ref name="Obituary">{{cite web|url=https://thewhig.remembering.ca/obituary/john-walter-bill-fitsell-1081091555|title=John Walter "Bill" Fitsell|work=The Kingston Whig-Standard|access-date=December 6, 2020|via=Remembering Canada}}</ref><ref name="LindsayPost03">{{cite news |last=Druery |first=Ron |title=Former Lindsay resident contributes to Kingston hockey book |date=December 16, 2003 |page=6 |newspaper=Lindsay Daily Post |location=Lindsay, Ontario |id={{ProQuest|352598763}} }}</ref><ref name="Hendra">{{cite news|title=Longtime journalist, hockey historian Bill Fitsell remembered|last=Hendra|first=Peter|date=December 4, 2020|newspaper=The Kingston Whig-Standard|location=Kingston, Ontario|url=https://www.thewhig.com/news/longtime-journalist-hockey-historian-bill-fitsell-remembered}}</ref> The family home where he grew up included a large lot upon which an ice hockey rink was constructed each winter, where he and his friends played as youths.<ref name="OHHOF">{{cite web|url=http://www.originalhockeyhalloffame.com/news-events/fitsell.html|title=Hockey historian Bill Fitsell and the discovery of Bobby Orr|website=Original Hockey Hall of Fame|access-date=December 4, 2020}}</ref><ref name="Kirkpatrick">{{cite web|url=https://www.kingstonist.com/culture/bill-fitsell-interview/|title=Six Questions for Bill Fitsell|last=Kirkpatrick|first=Harvey|date=November 23, 2011|work=The Kingstonist|access-date=December 4, 2020}}</ref>
Fitsell was a lifelong fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs and stated his favourite player was Charlie Conacher, since they both played as a right winger.<ref name="Puckstruck" /><ref name="OHHOF" /> The Maple Leafs played an exhibition game in Lindsay in 1935, and Fitsell introduced himself and his friends to the players as they exited the team's bus before the game.<ref name="Kirkpatrick" /> In the 1930s, Fitsell began a lifelong hobby of a scrapbook containing newspaper articles, photographs and other memorabilia related to the Maple Leafs.<ref name="Puckstruck" /><ref name="Kirkpatrick" /> He attended his first National Hockey League game on January 18, 1936, watching the Maple Leafs play the Boston Bruins at Maple Leaf Gardens.<ref name="Puckstruck" />
Fitsell attended high school at Lindsay Collegiate and Vocational Institute.<ref name="KHS">{{cite web|url=https://www.kingstonhistoricalsociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/LL-1994-02-Feb94.pdf|title=President Bill|last=Warren|first=Jim|date=February 1, 1994|website=Kingston Historical Society|access-date=December 6, 2020}}</ref> At age 17, he joined the Navy Cadets and departed for Victoria, British Columbia.<ref name="LindsayPost03" /><ref name="Hendra" /> He later joined the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1942.<ref name="Puckstruck" /><ref name="KHS" /> He played hockey while stationed in Halifax with the navy during World War II.<ref name="OHHOF" /> He initially served aboard HMCS ''St. Francis'', then was transferred to HMCS ''Outremont''.<ref name="KHS" /> He was a ship's writer and assisted the captains with correspondence and paying the crews.<ref name="Hendra" /> During the Normandy landings in 1944, ''Outremont'' protected the western end of the English Channel from enemy submarines.<ref>{{cite news |title=Battle of the Atlantic; Bill Fitsell, 93, recalls his service with Canadian Navy during Second World War <!-- Print edition title - the online title is "Remembering the Battle of the Atlantic" --> |last=Crosier |first=Steph |date=April 23, 2017 |url=https://www.thewhig.com/2017/04/23/remembering-the-battle-of-the-atlantic |access-date=2020-12-19 |publication-date=April 24, 2017 |page=A1 |newspaper=Kingston Whig-Standard |id={{ProQuest|2376837155}} }}</ref> He courted Barbara Robson on Cape Breton Island after the war, and they married in 1945. He was discharged from naval service in 1946 and they settled in Lindsay.<ref name="Puckstruck" /><ref name="MacAlpine">{{cite news|url=https://www.thewhig.com/news/local-news/great-partnership-leads-to-75-years-of-marriage|title=Great partnership leads to 75 years of marriage|last=MacAlpine|first=Ian|date=October 16, 2020|newspaper=The Kingston Whig-Standard|location=Kingston, Ontario|access-date=December 4, 2020}}</ref>
==Journalist and historian== thumb|The International Hockey Hall of Fame's former home from 1965 to 2012.|alt=Building exterior
Fitsell began his journalism career with ''The Lindsay Post'' in 1946,<ref name=LindsayPost03/> and then worked for the ''Lindsay Watchman Warder'', the ''Woodstock Sentinel-Review'', the ''Port Perry Star'', and the ''Ontario Churchman''.<ref name="KHS" /> He moved to writing for the ''Gananoque Reporter'' in 1952. He joined ''The Kingston Whig-Standard'' in 1961 as the Gananoque Bureau Chief, then became the district editor. He began writing the column "People" in 1978.<ref name="KHS" /> He worked full-time until 1988, then as a part-time contributor until 1993.<ref name="KDSHF" />
From the early 1950s, Fitsell was involved in the community as a minor ice hockey coach and convenor in Gananoque and Kingston, Ontario.<ref name="KDSHF" /> In March 1961, Fitsell attended a game in Gananoque where a 13-year-old Bobby Orr was discovered by scouts from the Boston Bruins while playing on a team from Parry Sound during the provincial playoffs.<ref name="OHHOF" />
Fitsell was involved with the International Hockey Hall of Fame from 1969 to 2005, as its secretary, curator, vice-president, president and then historian.<ref name="KDSHF" /><ref name="Kirkpatrick" /> He was a driving force behind the Historic Hockey Series, an annual re-enactment by teams from Queen's University at Kingston, the Royal Military College of Canada, and the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, to commemorate early games played on natural ice in the Kingston harbour during the 1880s.<ref name="KDSHF" /><ref name="Kirkpatrick" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.originalhockeyhalloffame.com/news-events//historic.html|title=Historic Hockey:A History Lesson On Ice|website=Original Hockey Hall of Fame|access-date=December 4, 2020}}</ref> He also helped organize the annual Carr-Harris Cup competition, between the Royal Military College of Canada and the United States Military Academy.<ref name="KHS" />
Fitsell joined the Kingston Historical Society in 1977, was its vice-president in the early 1990s, and then became its president in January 1994.<ref name="KHS" /> He was the founding president of the Society for International Hockey Research in 1991, was a regular contributor to the ''Hockey Research Journal'' and editor of the society's newsletter.<ref name="KDSHF" /><ref name="Kirkpatrick" /> The initial research group for the society began with 17 members in May 1991, and grew to include 500 members globally as of October 2020.<ref name="MacAlpine" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Hockey History Research to be Focus of New Society |date=May 21, 1991 |page=1 |newspaper=The Whig-Standard |id={{ProQuest|35329344}} }}</ref>
===Publications=== thumb|Captain James T. Sutherland|alt=Photo of Sutherland in Canadian Expeditionary Forces' uniform
Fitsell wrote five books during his career,<ref name="Queen's" /> including a biography of Captain James T. Sutherland and the effort to establish the Hockey Hall of Fame in Kingston.<ref name="Kirkpatrick" />
* {{cite book|last1=Fitsell|first1=J. W.|last2=Hudson|first2=Noel|title=Hockey's Captains, Colonels and Kings|publisher=Boston Mills Press|date=1987|location=Erin, Ontario|isbn=9780919783683|oclc=906497145}} * {{cite book|last1=Fitsell|first1=J. W.|last2=Dawber|first2=Michael|title=Fitsell's Guide to the Old Ontario Strand: A Cultural and Historical Companion|publisher=Quarry Heritage Books|date=1994|location=Kingston, Ontario|isbn=9781550821215|oclc=31169538}} * {{cite book|last1=Fitsell|first1=J. W.|last2=Potter|first2=Mark|author-link2=Mark Potter (sportscaster)|title=Hockey's Hub: Three Centuries of Hockey in Kingston|publisher=Quarry Heritage Books|date=2003|location=Kingston, Ontario|isbn=9781550823318|oclc=1160346633}} * {{cite book|last=Fitsell|first=J. W.|title=How Hockey Happened|publisher=Quarry Heritage Books|date=2007|location=Kingston, Ontario|isbn=9781550823479|oclc=320876139}} * {{cite book|last=Fitsell|first=J. W.|title=Captain James T. Sutherland: The Grand Old Man of Hockey & The Battle for the Original Hockey Hall of Fame|publisher=Quarry Heritage Books|date=2012|location=Kingston, Ontario|isbn=978-1-55082-374-5|oclc=868354805}}
==Personal life== Fitsell and his wife were married for 75 years and had five daughters.<ref name="MacAlpine" /> They resided in Kingston for more than fifty years.<ref name="OHHOF" /> According to Fitsell's daughter, he did not have a car nor a driver's license until after aged 40, since he was scared of driving due to reporting on accidents for many years.<ref name="Hendra" />
Fitsell was a member of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 9, the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery Brigade Association, and the Kingston Jazz Society.<ref name="KHS" /> His other interests included serving on the Kingston Buskers' Committee, the Kingston Heritage Tattoo Society, and the Queen's University Archives Committee.<ref name="KHS" />
Fitsell was hospitalized in October 2020,<ref name="MacAlpine" /> and died at the Kingston General Hospital on December 3, 2020.<ref name="Obituary" />
==Honours and legacy== Fitsell received an honour award from the Ontario Minor Hockey Association in 1967 for distinguished service, and the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal in 1993.<ref name="KHS" /> He was inducted into the Lindsay District Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lindsaydistrictsportshall.ca/inductees/|title=Inductees|year=2019|website=Lindsay District Sports Hall of Fame|access-date=December 4, 2020}}</ref> He was made a Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary Club in 2005, and was given the Brian McFarlane Award in 2006 from the Society for International Hockey Research in recognition of his research and writing. Fitsell was inducted into the builder category of the Kingston and District Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.<ref name="KDSHF" /><ref name="Queen's" /> The archives of Queen's University at Kingston keeps fonds of Fitsell's historical collections, research and writing on ice hockey.<ref name="Queen's" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitsell, Bill}} Category:1923 births Category:2020 deaths Category:20th-century Canadian historians Category:20th-century Canadian journalists Category:20th-century Canadian male journalists Category:21st-century Canadian historians Category:21st-century Canadian male writers Category:21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers Category:Canadian male non-fiction writers Category:Canadian military personnel from Ontario Category:Canadian sportswriters Category:Directors of museums in Canada Category:Journalists from Ontario Category:Royal Canadian Navy personnel of World War II Category:Sportspeople from Barrie Category:Sportspeople from Kawartha Lakes Category:Sportspeople from Kingston, Ontario Category:Writers from Kingston, Ontario Category:Writers from Simcoe County