Canadian visionary Gerald Heffernan introduced less-polluting mini-mills for steel production

Gerald Heffernan, who died in Toronto on July 28 at the age of 104, was an innovative engineer who pioneered steel mini-mills, first in Alberta at the start of the oil boom, then in Ontario. He was as much a scientist as a businessman and was recognized around the world as a leader in creating smaller, less-polluting steel mills.

After forming Premier Steel Mills in Edmonton in 1955, Heffernan went on to build a mini-mill empire called Co-Steel.The family moved in 1923 to British Columbia where they had a fruit farm. One year they had a problem: There was no market for their apples and no way to get them to market. Young Gerald walked 16 kilometres to the nearby town of Nelson and negotiated a contract with a jam factory owner to buy the fruit. Then he used the contract as collateral to buy a used truck.

The army was short of engineers and Lieutenant Gerald Heffernan trained many platoons of engineering troops. He remained in Canada during the war, but in September, 1945, was in an army camp preparing to go to the Pacific front when Japan surrendered after the atomic bomb attacks. He then had to decide what to do next.

He was a teacher and doctoral candidate, and audited business classes. Mr. Heffernan was planning an academic career when that suddenly changed, his daughter Clare Heffernan said. Mr. Heffernan saw an opportunity when oil was discovered in Alberta in the late 1940s. The drillers needed steel, and he figured it was easier to make it near the oil fields rather than transport it from central Canada. He found some backers and started Premier Steel Mills in Edmonton in 1955.

“When we got to the shallow water, he needed help standing up but once he had his canes, he walked out of the water to applause from the 25 people who had gathered to see him and me swimming parallel to the waves. I think what that said about Jerry was that he wanted adventure and risk-taking,” Mr. Bernstein said.

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