Eric BurnettCourtesy of family
Eric Frederick Peter Burnett: Dad. Engineer. Opera lover. Teacher. Born Jan. 7, 1937, in Roodepoort, South Africa; died March 13, 2025, in Richmond, B.C., of dementia, aged 88.
Eric Burnett could never quite believe he’d reached the age of 88, but he liked that he had as many years as there are keys on a piano.
He was born to Eileen and Peter Burnett, the eldest of three boys. The family lived on an acreage on the outskirts of Bulawayo (then Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe), a rail hub from which Peter worked as a train conductor.
Eric and his brothers, Basil and Hylton, had a series of pets, including fox terriers and duikers, small antelopes whose babies they’d find abandoned in the bush. At 11, Eric was sent away to Grey High School – a three-day journey by train.
Boarding school meant sudden independence. Eric developed a hard-nosed self-sufficiency, taking up boxing (permanently deviating his septum) and for the first time getting high marks. His teachers broadened his horizons, he said, introducing him to literature and art, and sparking an interest in travel and higher education.
He was the first in his family to attend university, taking the gold medal in civil engineering with his BSc at the University of Cape Town. A full-ride Shell scholarship enabled his MSc (engineering) and Diploma of Imperial College, and he eventually earned his PhD from the University of London.
While there, friends introduced him to Angela Towert, a vivacious, whip-smart librarian who’d grown up in South Africa. In 1964 he moved to Canada for a teaching post at the University of Waterloo, and soon wrote to invite Angela to join him on his transatlantic adventure.
In February, 1965, they were married in Toronto. On their wedding day, with his lifelong talent for understatement, he told his bride, “You look quite nice.” Their marriage of 58 years survived – and by many measures thrived – because his praise was as sincere as it was precious.
Eric’s humour was mostly wry, and he shared his love of British comedy with his children, Alastair and Gillian. He laughed hardest and longest at his son’s jokes, especially when they were at his own expense.
And they often were. An avid photographer, Eric’s pictures of buildings outnumbered those of family. His kids would jokingly point and yell, “Salt damage!” to get his attention.
As a parent, he was both supportive and demanding. He celebrated his children’s successes and left no doubt of their failures. His talent for math skipped a generation, and Gillian would sometimes find a handwritten note on her report cards: “Inadequate.”
He brought the same high standards to his work. Over his distinguished 25-year career teaching civil engineering at Waterloo, students would occasionally call him at home to request extensions. If his children answered, they’d advise them not to ask.
Eric was proud of his industry partnerships and advocated strongly for women in his male-dominated profession. He was the founder and director of the Building Engineering Group until 1996 and a senior consultant and technical director with Trow Consulting Engineers Ltd.
In his career’s second act, the couple moved to the U.S., where Eric held the Hankin Chair in Residential Construction at Penn State from 1996 to 2005 and was director for the Pennsylvania Housing Research/Resource Center. Upon retirement, his team threw a party featuring a life-size cardboard cut-out of him asleep at his desk. His humility and sense of humour pervaded everything he did.
In retirement, they moved to Richmond, B.C., where Eric co-authored an engineering textbook and worked as a consultant at RDH Building Sciences.
At 69, a stroke forced him to spend more time on his many hobbies. He was a serious collector of stamps (specializing in southern Africa), wooden boxes and hippo figurines. He surrounded himself with Folio Society hardcover classics, paperback murder mysteries and classical music. You could tell he was home by the strains of Puccini wafting through his office door.
He adored his grandkids, Jasper and Alice, whose childhoods he helped shape.
Eric’s world got much smaller when Angela died in 2023. While he wasn’t a naturally demonstrative man, his last chapter was distinguished by an easy and moving affection for those he loved. His continued laughter at Alastair’s jokes – and an occasional zinger of his own – was a gift right up until a few days before his death.
Gillian Burnett is Eric Burnett’s daughter.
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