Michael Kesterton

Michael Kesterton (1946–2018) was a columnist with The Globe and Mail. His weekday column, "Social Studies," was published from June 12, 1990 until July 1, 2013.

Early life Kesterton's father was a professional photographer and trade publication writer and his mother was a real estate agent. The person he credits with inspiring his career in journalism was his uncle, Wilf Kesterton, a journalism professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario.

He attended the University of Toronto, where he studied mathematics, physics and psychology.

Career In 1969, Kesterton began working at The Globe and Mail as a proofreader. After seven years he moved to the computer room. He was there for two years before being promoted to a copy editor for newspaper's business section, Report on Business. He worked briefly as a Business feature writer and Technology section editor.

"There are hundreds of reporters who can do a better job at [news stories] than I ever could… The light-hearted hack work that I am doing isn't hugely important and will never win journalism awards, but I'm better at it than anyone I know and readers often love the columns and tell me so. There are worse ways to earn a living." – Michael Kesterton