Pioneer environmentalist honoured at St.Marys,Ontario
Dr. Berry– photo copyright Tom Davey
Canada’s greatest environmentalist, the late Dr. Albert
Edward Berry, P.Eng., Ph.D, Order of Canada, was
honoured by the renaming of a historic and refurbished
water treatment facility in his home town of
St. Marys, Ontario.
Dr. Berry was one
of nine children and
began a brilliant academic
career when
he walked to public
school a mile from
his birthplace. After
gaining a B.A.Sc
from the University
of Toronto, he
worked briefly for
the Ontario Board of
Health before going
to England as a 2nd
Lieutenant with the
Royal Engineers.
Following his service
in World War I, he
returned to Canada to
what became the Department of Public Health. He then took
a Master’s degree with a thesis on refuse collection and disposal.
Some eighty years later, garbage disposal remains one
of Ontario’s most intractable problems.
His decision to take a Ph.D at the U of T’s School of
Hygiene caused difficulties as engineers were not encouraged
to cross disciplinary lines and obstacles were placed in
his way. But academe was dealing with a very determined
man. He obtained his Ph.D with a thesis on the viability of
pathogenic organisms in milk, a thesis which led to the
Ontario legislature making milk pasteurization compulsory.
In 1926, Dr. Berry was appointed Director of the
Department of Health’s Division of Sanitary Engineering
where he investigated a number of epidemics, some from
milk, others from water-borne diseases.
Some of his ‘Mandatory Orders’ were strenuously
opposed by some municipalities but they were fighting a
man renowned for his tenacity and the orders were eventually
obeyed. His work in translating scientific epidemiology
into legislative realities did not go unnoticed at Queen’s
Park. In 1956 Dr. Berry was appointed General Manager and
Chief Engineer of the Ontario Water Resources Commission
which embarked on massive environmental public works
programs as Ontario’s population and industries grew rapidly;
this gained him an international reputation.
He was elected President of the American Water Works
Association which is the oldest and largest water treatment
body in the world. He later was elected President of what
evolved into the present Water Environment Federation and
was the only person, American or Canadian to be elected
President of both these renowned international bodies. After
he retired in 1963, he became a consultant to the World
Health Organization.
The restored water treatment plant in St. Marys maintained its
original stonework but with totally modern treatment facilities.
Just prior to unveiling a plaque on the refurbished plant with
Mayor Tony Winter, guest speaker Tom Davey, Editor of
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine said:
“When the history of environmental sciences is written in
Canada, the name of Dr. Albert Edward Berry will be dominant.
Some 60 years before the so called birth of the Green Movement,
Dr. Berry was vigorously fighting for new treatment facilities
across Ontario. His influence was felt across North America.”
Noting that Dr. Berry’s Master’s thesis was on garbage
disposal, Tom enquired: “What would he think of the current
practice of shipping Toronto garbage to Detroit, Michigan,
using some 150 diesel trucks a day?”
Although Dr. Berry never had any children, the extended
Berry family of nephews, nieces, great nephews and great
nieces were there, including another Dr. Albert Berry, a
nephew from his younger brother’s family, and a Professor
Emeritus at the U of T.
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