Doug's legacy

John Paton, a Toronto Sun copy boy who rose through the ranks to executive status, is paying tribute to the late Doug Creighton, his mentor, with a $50,000 scholarship contribution.

The $50,000 will be used in a new J. Douglas Creighton Scholarship Fund he established for students at City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism, where Paton is a board of advisers member. 

Creighton, a Toronto Sun co-founder ousted by the Sun board in 1992, died in 2004.

A CUNY website story says Paton's scholarship contribution is one of two by board of advisers members. A second scholarship was established by Roz Abrams, a New York TV news anchor vet. 

Paton's generosity and his loyalty to the Toronto Sun and its founding publisher is heartwarming and sharing Doug's legacy with American journalism students is commendable.

“Doug Creighton was a remarkable journalist who built the largest newspaper company in Canada from scratch," Paton, 54, says in the CUNY story. "He was a mentor to many and an inspiration to all who knew him."

The story says Paton joined the school’s advisory board in early 2010, shortly after he became chief executive of the Journal Register. The company owns more than 300 print and online news and information products serving 19 million Americans a month.