Fonds F1455 - Jack Peach fonds

John Stevley "Jack" Peach, 1913-1993, was born in Calgary. He was educated in Calgary and Leicester, England. He was a freelance broadcaster before joining the CBC in 1937. During the Second World War he served with the RCAF in England, then in 1944 joined the overseas news division of BBC. In 1946 he was appointed the English language supervisor of CBC International Services based in Montreal. Peach married Laura Margaret Smith, 1911-2002, and they had four children: Dan, Peter, Martha (MacLeod) and Katy (Jones). In 1963 he married Audrey Harrington of England.

Peach worked in the public relations field, 1952-1964, then rejoined CBC as program director of the new CBC radio station in Calgary. In 1972 he became public relations officer of CBC, Calgary. He retired from CBC in 1978. A well-known broadcaster and writer, he made hundreds of broadcasts, based on his reminiscences, for the CBC's Heritage Radio Talks series. He published eleven books, including Peach Preserves, All Our Yesterdays and Days Gone By, hosted a CBC television series entitled "Peach's Calgary", and from 1980 to his death wrote a regular column for the Calgary Herald about southern Alberta history. In 1981 he gave a ten week course, "This is the House that They Built", about Calgary buildings, for the University of Calgary. He moved to Okotoks in 1987.