John D. (Jack) Frey, a former dean of the Haileybury School of Mines, has died. He was 75.
Born in Cranbrook, B.C., in 1926, he graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1949 with a B.A.Sc. in Mining Engineering. While at U.B.C., he spent his summers working at the Sullivan mine, first on haulage vehicles and then as a miner. Following his degree, he worked underground in the Slocan area of southeastern British Columbia, at the Britannia mine on the coast, and at Lamaque in northwestern Quebec.
In the early 1950s, having been advised to stop working underground for health reasons, he joined aircraft manufacturer A.V. Roe in Malton, Ont., where he worked on the Arrow fighter project, but in 1954 he left Roe to return to mining, this time as an instructor at Haileybury.
Under his leadership, the School of Mines maintained considerable independence after the Ontario government folded it into the provincial community-college system as part of Northern College. He retired as dean in 1989.
Frey was a long-time member of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, and served as a district vice-president from 1979 to 1981. He received the CIM’s Distinguished Service Medal in 1982. He was also a life member of the Prospectors & Developers’ Association of Canada.
He leaves a wife, Gloria, five children and four grandchildren.
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