Published February 20, 2012
Toronto Star
By Tim Alamenciak
When Cindy first saw Eddy in the printing plant at the Toronto Star, she knew he was the one for her.
She was working as an inserter in 1978, putting flyers into the newspapers. He was a foreman, her supervisor.
“The first time I saw him he was by the Line 1 conveyor belt,” she said. “He had the most beautiful blue eyes, beautiful. As soon as I saw him I liked him.”
A few short years later, in 1983, the two would marry. It was a match made in the mailing room.
“He was funny, gentle,” said Cindy Kriina. “He was everything.”
Egon “Eddy” Kriina died of a heart attack on Feb. 7, at the age of 66. He worked at the Star for more than 40 years.
“He was my first boss when I started there. I was 17,” said Val Sammut, a supervisor in the mailing room at the Vaughan printing plant.
Sammut began at the Star in 1978. He worked with Kriina for 34 years, climbing the ranks to become a supervisor.
Mailing room employees are the last hands that touch the Star as the newspaper leaves the plant. They insert flyers, pack the papers for delivery and load trucks.
Sammut described Kriina as a mentor and a reliable boss who kept a cool head in the workplace.
“He was honest. If you weren’t doing something right, he’d tell you. If you were doing something right, he’d tell you too,” said Sammut. The two became close friends.
Kriina worked at three different plants used by the Star, ending his career at the press centre in Vaughan, where the paper is printed today.
He retired in 2006.
Kriina leaves his wife, Cindy, children Robert, Alex, Karen and Kristopher, and grandchildren Ryan, Jake, Mya, Morgan, Payton, Rayne and Regan.