Frederick Kenneth Hare (1919 - 2002)
C.C., B.Sc., Ph.D., LL.D., D.LITT., D.S.LITT., D.Sc., F.K.C., F.R.S.C.
Sixth Chancellor (1988 to 1995)
Kenneth Hare was a distinguished, internationally-renowned environmental scientist and geographer who was noted for his research in climatology and biogeography. He was commissioner of the Ontario Nuclear Safety Review and headed major inquiries into environmental issues such as lead contamination, nuclear winter, air pollution and the disposal of nuclear waste.
Kenneth Hare was born in England and educated at the University of London, the London School of Economics and the University of Montreal. He began his career as a meteorologist with the British Air Ministry during World War II then immigrated to Canada in 1945 and joined McGill University as a geography professor. He earned his Ph.D. as an Arctic climatologist and headed a team of Arctic weather specialists who, along with a group of radar physicists, formed McGill's highly successful Department of Meteorology.
Dr. Hare's research interests included atmospheric carbon dioxide, climate change, drought, and arid zone climates. He was active in movements to protect the natural environment, serving on commissions and committees on acid rain, desertification, heavy metals, nuclear reactors and waste products, ozone, greenhouse gases and climate change. He was a member of the Research and Development Advisory Panel of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. and conducted studies on nuclear waste management in Sweden and France.
In addition to his scientific accomplishments, Dr. Hare had a long and distinguished career as a university administrator at McGill University where he was Dean of Arts and Science; at the University of London where he was Master of Birkbeck College; at the University of British Columbia where he was President, and at the University of Toronto where he was Provost of Trinity College and Director of the Institute for Environmental Studies.
Dr. Hare was Chairman of the Climate Program Planning Board of Canada, the Royal Society of Canada Study of Nuclear Winter, the Canadian panel on documents related to a proposed Canada-U.S. treaty on transboundary air pollution, and the Federal Study Group on Nuclear Waste Management. He was University Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, a Companion of the Order of Canada, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and was a recipient of honorary degrees from 11 universities and numerous medals and awards.
Kenneth Hare believed that the most urgent environmental challenge facing Canada in the 21st century was climate change created by the consumption of fossil fuels. He was a promoter of nuclear power, correctly used, as a more acceptable power source and was a vigorous public speaker and writer on these issues. Dr. Hare died in September 2002.