As a young man, Harold “Gersh” Gershuny hosted the 4 pm to 7 pm slot on Now Flower, Winnipeg’s ground-breaking alternative radio station. “Nobody was doing anything like it, this free-form format. Doing whatever we wanted with minimum supervision was certainly unique. We didn’t know we were being influential because it was just fun.” Now Flower lasted only three years before the parent station, CKY-FM pulled the plug in 1971. Harold summed up his radio career in a few words: “I was just a Jewish kid working out his neuroses on air.”
Harold, who adopted “Rainwalker” as his alias, moved to Vancouver and went on to live a multi-faceted life. In 2006, he posted this brief autobiography on an online forum:
In case anyone is interested in who I am….
I’m a middle-aged, upper middle-class, urban, childless, gay business executive with a cat, who hews to all of the liberal gold standards.
There is no doubt that I’m in an eternal state of glee for the big things, like decent health, the undeserved love of a good man, and a battalion of blessedly odd friends.
Every other issue that I care about is in danger, belching smoke and spiraling downward toward the worst nightmare that Lucifer can create. (Sweet Jesus, have we have lost our collective gag reflex?) At the same time, the issues that affect me most directly are making more progress than I would ever have dreamed possible.
The life I’m trying to lead is one where I can give enormous, unfettered thanks for this incredible and kaleidoscopic world where books and friends and family and laughter and learning and warmth and music can create a miraculous global crusade whose goal is great and shared joy.
Here’s a bio from a company that I’m involved in. Some of it may be true…
Rainwalker’s business intuition has been honed in industries as varied as radio, social service, and management consulting.
He began his business career as an on-air personality in commercial radio, and then moved behind the scenes as a consumer commentator and producer of documentaries for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Rainwalker was subsequently recruited into the Social Service field as Executive Director of agencies delivering non-traditional services to inner city youth. Later he changed fields to the consulting industry where he formed The Graham Group, Executive Recruiters, Inc. with 28 staff in two cities and the Ashbury Consulting Group Limited, a management advisory firm.
After the sale of the firms, Mr. Rainwalker moved into the public market arena where over the last 20+ years, he has taken on more senior responsibilities in financing startup companies. He has advised companies in fields as diverse as biotechnology, restaurant franchise operations, base and precious metals mining, oil and gas exploration and production, streaming video over IP, content integration (CI) technology, and merchant banking.
He was the founder of the 400 member Gastown Homeowners Association and a director of Musical Theatreworks, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating new Canadian musical theatre. Previously, he held board positions in a number of not-for-profit organizations focusing on human rights and community development.
Rainwalker is a Master Scuba Diver, is a member of the Taoist Tai Chi Society, and is rapidly becoming an otaku: an anime (Japanese animation) fan on an obsessive level.
He has participated in 4 Outward Bound month long wilderness courses, three of which were in the equatorial jungles of Asia, and is grateful to have been selected for the Outward Bound Malaysia Golden Jubilee Roll of Honour.
On a personal note….
I am celebrating the 20th anniversary of my partnership with my best friend and lover, Rick.
And I just bought a BMW R1200C motorcycle….
This post illustrates “Rainwalker’s” passion for motorcycling and his sense of humour:
Years ago, I took my Moto Guzzi 1000 convert (LAPD police model) on a 6 month 19 state, 5 province tour and on my return, was going out for lunch with my closest friend, also a gay man.
It was noon and we were waiting for the light at the busiest corner on the major downtown pedestrian mall, surrounded by 25 or 30 office workers who had just poured out of the high rises in search of sustenance.
I told my friend that there was only one thing that I hadn’t accomplished on my tour and that was to visit Fire Island near NYC, accessible only by boat or plane and, then as now, a mecca for gay men on vacation.
He asked why and I told him that Fire Island was car and motorcycle free and that they wouldn’t let me and the Guzzi on the ferry.
He turned, looked at me and said, in a loud voice “Well, they might not have let the motorcycle on the ferry but they sure let the fairy on the motorcycle.”
The folks in the crowd waiting with us for the light to change burst into guffaws, the light changed and we all moved off, temporarily bonded by laughter.
Harold lived the final decade of his life in Thailand. He died there in 2018 at the age of 70.