What is the nationality of a baby born in international airspace or waters? What are those coin-sized black blobs on city sidewalks? Why do men have nipples?

For 12 years, Walter Stefaniuk entertained such questions — posed by inquisitive Toronto Star readers — and dug up the answers in his meticulously researched and popular column, You Asked Us.

The column, which began in 1990, generated 6,000 questions from readers in the first five months. Some were silly and some not so much. In his final column in 2003 he dealt with this light query: What are the eternal truths?

Stefaniuk, 72, died Friday afternoon at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto following complications from surgery. He was diagnosed late last year with colon cancer.

“He was a gentle father, an amazing, wonderful husband and such a kind heart,” said Sonya Stefaniuk, one of Walter’s four children. “Helluva good partier, too. He was a real hero to us.”

He dreamed of one day winning the lottery, said Sonya, and vowed to share with family but also establish what he called the “Wally One” foundation, which would benefit charities near to his heart.

On Friday, following a battle with septic shock, the family knew it was time to let him go.

A slim, wiry man who worked as both editor and reporter, Stefaniuk took his work seriously but not himself. He could report on a serious issue but also pose for goofy photos to go with lighter features.

He retired from the Star in 2003 and never stopped writing. He finished a polished version of a first novel just last month and was working on another.

In the early days of his column, reader queries, for the most part, came by way of telephone.

There was no Google and no Wikipedia — not that a journalist of Stefaniuk’s calibre would place much trust in such instantaneous sources, anyway. He found his answers in books, reference libraries and by old fashioned shoe-leather journalism.

He picked up the phone and called smart people.

“Leave no stone unturned was Walter’s approach to news reporting,” said Mary Deanne Shears, a former Star managing editor. “He loved to ask questions, to dig deeper, much to the delight of assignment editors. And his You Asked Us column in the Star both intrigued and entertained thousands of readers for years.

“He really hit his stride with that column,” said Shears. “No question was too quirky, no topic too challenging for Walter.”

Longtime friend and writer Brian Vallee said Stefaniuk was always working on a writing project of some sort. Before his first of two surgeries last month and early this month, Stefaniuk handed Vallee a re-edited manuscript of his first novel, a thriller called The Jesus Fragments, which Vallee intended to send off to a U.S. publisher.

“The book was a well-written, terrific thriller,” said Vallee.

Stefaniuk was busy on a second novel when he died.

John Honderich, Torstar chairman and former Star publisher, first worked with Stefaniuk at the Ottawa Citizen in the ‘70s, where Stefaniuk was “an editor’s editor.”

“Walter had a sardonic wit,” said Honderich. “He was one of the characters who make a newsroom work.”

Born April 15, 1938, Stefaniuk was born in Windsor and grew up in Wawa and Sault Ste. Marie. He enjoyed sports and officiated minor league hockey. With 15 years experience in journalism, including a year in London on Fleet St., he joined the Star as a copy editor in April, 1976.

He impressed from the very start and following one of many glowing performance reviews by bosses over the years, Stefaniuk, as is the custom, was then asked for his comments.

“I want a raise.”

He moved from editor to writer to columnist, a rare thing in the business.

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Stefaniuk’s mind always seemed to be on work, which at times could prove distracting. To wit, a story from his early days at the Star, courtesy of Vallee:

After a long day, Stefaniuk fetched his car from the Star parking lot only to remember he’d forgotten something. He left the car on the street and dashed upstairs.

Having dealt with what he’d forgotten, Stefaniuk returned to the parking lot to get his car, forgetting that he’d left it on the street. He promptly called police to report the car stolen.

“It was typical Walter,” said Vallee, who published a book in 2005 by Stefaniuk based on his You Asked Us columns.

“He just had a lot on his mind all the time. His mind was racing. A bundle of energy,” said Vallee, who worked under Stefaniuk as a cub reporter at the Sault Star in the ‘60s, when Stefaniuk was city editor.

“He was a good journalist, though.”

Former Star journalist Nicolaas van Rijn said Stefaniuk was dogged in his pursuit of answers. “If you asked him a question, if a reader asked him a question, he wouldn’t stop until he had the answers.”

Stefaniuk leaves his wife Jay Laughlin and daughters Nicola Stefaniuk, Sarah Stefaniuk and Sonya Stefaniuk, and son Paul, and sister Sonja Tessier and her husband Jean Tessier.

Visitation is scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m., Wednesday, Mar. 9, at the Mt. Pleasant Visitation Centre, 375 Mt. Pleasant Rd. A funeral service will also the held there on Thursday, Mar. 10, at 1 p.m., with a reception afterward.

The family would like to thank staff at St. Michael’s intensive care unit and, in lieu of flowers, asks that donations be made to St. Michael’s Foundation, Medical Surgical Intensive Care Unit.

For the record — and Stefaniuk would have it no other way — a baby born in international space to at least one parent who is Canadian is considered Canadian.

The blobs on the sidewalk are chewing gum and darn hard to remove.

Men have nipples because we all start out the same.

His answers, of course, were much more nuanced and explanatory than space here allows.

You asked Stefaniuk, and he always delivered.