Journalist Kaplan honoured by CIM

Frank Kaplan, whose career as a journalist in the resource industry has spanned more than a quarter-century, was recently honoured with a lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM).

During his distinguished and colourful career, Kaplan raised the standards of news reporting of the resource industries, first as editor of the mines and oils beat at the Financial Post and later as a senior editor at that publication. Under his guidance, the Post established extensive contacts with the industry and its critics, and the increased coverage led to the creation of bureaus in Calgary, Vancouver and Washington, D.C.

Kaplan left the Post in 1969 to pursue a career as a consultant and establish his own publishing company. The company was subsequently bought by Maclean-Hunter, his former employer at the Post, whereupon Kaplan returned to the publishing giant as an editor-manager. Sadly, during a mining trip to Costa Rica in 1973, he acquired a debilitating lung fungus, which eventually forced him to quit his job. He continued to write as a freelancer for Canadian Mining Journal, among other publications, for several years.

Kaplan, whose reporting skills are equal only to his talent as a raconteur, was born in 1927 in Toronto. He got his start as a writer with the Canadian Press and later reported for the Toronto Telegram for five years before joining the Post. He also worked in radio and television.

Kaplan is a member of the Toronto Press Club and the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada.