We regret to advise of the death of Captain Harold “Hal” Rudd (Ret’d) P.Eng, peacefully, on Sunday, 31 January 2016 at age 101, at Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Harold was a WW II Royal Canadian Engineer veteran with a speciality in Tunnelling.
Harold was born in 1914 on a farm in Guelph Township, ON. He attended the local one-room public school and Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute. To be able to attend university he worked as a mining labourer at the McIntyre Mine in Timmins and became a trained miner. In 1935 he started his mining engineering program at the University of Toronto with the summers spent working at MacLeod Cockshutt and Little Long Lac gold mines in Geraldton, ON. In 1937, while still an undergraduate university student, Harold became their Chief Underground Surveyor. In 1939, he worked as a mine surveyor at Steep Rock Iron Mines. He graduated as a Mining Engineer in 1940 and was appointed Underground Shift Boss that same year.
Harold enlisted in the Canadian Army with the Royal Canadian Engineers in 1942. After his officer training at Brockville, ON he was assigned as Range Supervisor for the testing and training at the Bren Gun Range in Camp Petawawa, ON. He was sent to England in 1943 and joined No. 2 Tunnelling Company where he contributed his Mining Engineering expertise towards innovative solutions to Military Engineering problems. Projects included defensive and protective works to support combat troops, road construction, development of “FIDO (for fog dispersal at airfields) and the construction of “PLUTO” (the cross-channel pipeline project to deliver fuel to the advancing Allied forces after D-Day).
Harold was hospitalised with pneumonia in May 1944 and returned to England for recovery. He was assigned to a drillers’ training detachment in The Isle of Wight when he recovered. He eventually rejoined the Tunnellers in Belgium in December 1944. In the last stages of the war in May 1945 he was charged with the demolition of the massive German concrete E-boat pens at Ostend, BE that previous heavy aerial bombing had failed to damage.
After the closing down of the Canadian Tunnelling Companies in July 1945 Harold was transfered to the 2nd Field Company RCE for his eventual return to Canada. After demobilization he resumed his professional mining career in Northern Ontario with Macleod Cockshutt Gold Mines. In 1955 he was appointed General Manager at McLeod and remained in that position until 1967. He was a key advocate for the development of the new Geraldton and District Hospital. Harold moved to Toronto in 1967 and began work for Patino NV Mines with mining operations in Chibougamou, QC. He served as President from 1976-1980. After retirement, Harold worked as a mining consultant for Watts, Griffis and McOuat.
Harold was a member of The Masonic Temple Geraldton, Kenogamisis Lodge # 656 and was installed as Worshipful Master in both 1958 and 1965. He was an active volunteer at the Sunnybrook veterans' care facility and was a longtime member of the Canadian Institute of Mining, the Professional Engineers of Ontario and the Royal Canadian Legion, Fort York Branch.
The family will receive friends at The Humphrey Funeral Home A.W. Miles - Newbigging Chapel, 1403 Bayview Avenue (south of Davisville Avenue) on Tuesday, 9 February 2016 at 1:00 p.m., followed by a reception. Private family interment to follow. In lieu of flowers, if you wish, donations to a charity of your choice would be appreciated. {khFeb2016}
