The co-founder of Greenpeace has died today in Toronto of prostate cancer. He was 63.

Bob Hunter helped create Greenpeace an "independently funded organization that works to protect the environment" in 1971 and adopted the phrase "'Rainbow Warriors' for Greenpeace activists, and the expression “mind bomb” to describe the effects of Greenpeace protests", according to an article announcing his death on Greenpeace's web site.

Two years later in 1973, Hunter was elected president of the Greenpeace Foundation a position he held until 1977.

At the time of his illness, Hunter was working as a television journalist with the CHUM Group's CITY-TV who stated earlier, "Bob changed a generation's thinking about the Earth, its endangered creatures and the grave responsibility we all share for preserving the natural environment he dedicated his life to protecting".

Hunter was a prolific story-teller and had penned several books including "Warriors Of The Rainbow", "Erebus, The Enemies Of Anarchy", and "Occupied Canada: A Young White Man Discovers His Unsuspected Past" of which he was honoured with a Governor General's Award in 1991.

The original Rainbow Warrior leaves behind his wife, Bobbi and four children.