Richard Alan Diespecker (March 1, 1907 — February 11, 1973) was a Canadian

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

. Born in Adstock, England, Diespecker was educated at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

. After a brief career in teaching, in 1927 he became a journalist with ''The Vancouver Star''. Diespecker later joined the staffs of ''The Vancouver News'' and ''The Victoria Colonist''. He began broadcasting in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

at CJOR, which produced many of his radio plays. Diespecker had a brief army career during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and is best known by veterans for his "Prayer for Victory" which received acclaim in the United States and in Canada. Diespecker died at the age of 65 in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, California.

Selected bibliography

*''Between Two Furious Oceans'' (1944) *''Elizabeth'' (1950) *''Rebound'' (1953)

External links

Dick Diespecker
a
BC Radio History
1907 births 1973 deaths Canadian male novelists 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Canadian novelists Canadian male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Canadian male writers British emigrants to Canada {{Canada-playwright-stub