Michael Finlay, a longtime producer for CBC radio, passed away on Tuesday due to injuries sustained in an unprovoked attack in Toronto‘s east end, his family reported.

His legacy will live on at the CBC as an excellent storyteller, documentary maker, and editor, according to an email from CBC executive director of newsgathering and operations Cathy Perry.

According to Perry, Finlay traveled extensively to record radio documentaries for shows like Sunday Morning. “If you worked on a documentary with Michael, you were witnessing the apex of the craft,” the email read.

He also played a key role in the creation of Dispatches, a documentary series that highlighted the work of CBC‘s finest freelancers and international correspondents. The show, which ran for 12 years, had a weekly theme and promised to “bring you the world.”

Later in his career, he became an editor for World At Six, where his expertise in the field of journalism made him a household name. Journalists and producers “knew he always had their back on the field” and felt “pushed” by him to tell outstanding stories, Perry wrote.

“Michael was a man of firm beliefs when it came to the craft of writing, plot, and style. Every single journalist he ever worked with credited Michael with improving their work.” After 31 years of service at the CBC, Finlay left the organization in 2010.

Finlay was attacked by an unknown assailant on Danforth Avenue and Jones Avenue in the afternoon of January 24. Both streets are well-known for their abundance of businesses and eateries.

Authorities stated in a press release that the victim in the attack had fallen to the ground and sustained significant injuries as a result, but did not mention Finlay specifically.

They estimated the guy to be around six feet tall and skinny. The police said he was last seen wearing a black sweater and black jeans, as well as a red paper mask with flames on it. After the assault, he walked away from the neighborhood.

He “got what excellent journalism was,” as they say. Former CBC foreign correspondent and Sunday Morning coworker Frank Koller once remarked that Finlay had a “laser-like instinct of what would be big news anyplace in the world.”

Koller wrote on Facebook that he and Finlay working together was a lifelong goal. And he was a stickler for fine grammar and pronunciation and the rhythm and cadence of well-spoken English, so I wanted to work with him because he understood better than most what ‘good radio’ required and what good journalism was.

“In some situations, he may be difficult to get along with. Irascible, sardonic, a human chimney when smoking declined, occasionally grumpy, a human browser on nearly everything+anything in the years before the Internet… Seriously, how could anyone possibly find fault with that?”

Veteran CBC journalist Laura Lynch, who currently presents the climate-focused radio show What on Earth, responded to Koller’s tweet by saying that Finlay was a rock for his colleagues on the job.

“Many times I had conversations with him on the other end of the phone. He was familiar with the situation, had experience in the field, and encouraged me and others to perform a good job “I quote Lynch: No information on Finlay’s memorial service has been made public.