Barry Broadfoot, 77; Journalist, Author, Noted Oral Historian

Barry Broadfoot, 77, a journalist who was widely regarded as Canada’s most famous oral historian, died Friday in Nanaimo, British Columbia. The cause of death was not reported.

Broadfoot worked as a newspaper reporter and editor in Western Canada for 24 years, including many years as a feature writer at the Vancouver Sun. He received the Order of Canada in 1997.

One of his books, “Ten Lost Years,” an oral history of the Depression, shot to the top of the Canadian bestseller lists when it was published in 1973 and eventually sold more than 200,000 copies.

Broadfoot’s other books include “My Own Years,” a history of the World War II-era internment of Japanese Canadians; “Six War Years, 1939-45,” about Canada’s participation in World War II; and “The Pioneer Years,” about homesteading in Western Canada.

Broadfoot was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Manitoba. He served as an infantryman in the Canadian Army during World War II.