At the peak of his influence, Terry Kielty held the posts of president of the Ottawa Rough Riders and chairman of the Canadian Football League's board of governors. In addition to those high-profile jobs, he also worked on numerous initiatives to help Ottawa amateur sports teams, among other causes.

In 1947, Kielty was the first person hired by Frank Ryan to work at the new CFRA radio station. It was an association that lasted 45 years.

Although his duties as general manager were broad, sports broadcasting was a special passion of Kielty's. He handled play-by-play duties with the Triple-A baseball Ottawa Giants and Athletics from 1951-54.

Kielty was both station manager and sports director when Jim Shearon signed on as a broadcaster in 1957.

"He loved doing baseball," said Shearon, who remembers CFRA in its sports heyday as having the most ambitious lineup of live sports coverage imaginable, with its broadcasters travelling extensively to cover baseball, hockey and football.

Kielty was also particularly adept at doing radio play-by-play of baseball games he couldn't see. When games were too far away, or budget constraints did not permit, he would broadcast Detroit Tigers games from Ottawa using only a "ticker-tape" output of the balls and strikes as it came over the wire -- and a good deal of imagination.

Later, Kielty would host the pre-game broadcasts and halftime shows on radio for the Ottawa Rough Riders and was renowned as an on-air personality who could handle any situation.

"His greatest ability was to ad-lib on air," said Shearon. "There could be a rain delay or a holdup of some sort and Terry could talk forever."

Kielty served as president of the Riders in the 1980s when Alan Waters and CHUM Radio owned the team.

An obituary for Terry Kielty will appear in Sunday's Citizen. Also see today's Births and Deaths section for funeral details.