Gerald Heffernan with daughter Helen at Salt Spring Island, B.C. in 1996. Heffernan was recognized around the world as a leader in creating smaller steel mills that generated less pollution.Courtesy of family
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.
A mini-mill can make specialized steel products more cheaply than a giant smelter, and it uses scrap metal, making it a form of recycling.
“He figured out a way of not having these giant mills but smaller ones that were more efficient and could be placed in different places,” said Alan Bernstein, the past president of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) a group Mr. Heffernan helped found and worked with for a great part of his life.
“He was one of those rare Canadian businessmen who appreciated the value of science for their business and was a real risk-taker. He was really a rare animal for Canada.”
Mini-mills now produce a third of the steel in the world.
Gerald Heffernan was born in Edmonton on July 12, 1919. His father, William Heffernan, had moved there from Guelph, Ont., before the First World War. An entrepreneur, like his son would become, he ran a sawmill and cement plant. He then served overseas during the First World War and his businesses failed while he was away.
After forming Premier Steel Mills in Edmonton in 1955, Heffernan went on to build a mini-mill empire called Co-Steel.Courtesy of family
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. He couldn’t drive the truck home, however, because at 13 he didn’t have a licence.
His father died when Gerald was 15. His mother, Elise (née Graves), raised her four children with the help of family members in B.C.
Gerald went to a one-room schoolhouse at Mirror Lake, B.C., then was home-schooled until Grade 8, when he went to school in Nelson, B.C., later transferring to a school in Vancouver. He then went to live with his aunts, Helen and Stella Heffernan, in Toronto, where he finished Grade 13. His aunts supported him through his studies at the University of Toronto. He wrote his final exams in metallurgical engineering in 1943 and skipped the graduation ceremony to join the army.
In December of 1943 he married Geraldine O’Leary, who had studied physiotherapy at the U of T. They met on a blind date. She went on to play a major role in his business career, putting the brakes on whenever he had a risky new idea. “Dad tended to be impulsive, so he would often consult her before making decisions because she was able to see all the angles,” his daughter Virginia Heffernan said.
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.
“With the war over, a fellow officer and I were playing cribbage and bored out of our minds. And he said, ‘A lot of my platoon are going back to university,’” Mr. Heffernan recalled in a profile written about him for the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.
The University of British Columbia was understaffed, and desperately trying to prepare for the influx of ex-servicemen they knew would be enrolling. UBC hired Mr. Heffernan, arranging for him to get an immediate discharge from the army.
Gerald and Geraldine Heffernan the Bel Canto Foundation held its annual gala fundraiser in September, 2010 as honoured guests.JJ Thompson/The Globe and Mail
“I met Dr. Frank Forward, who was the head of the department, and he put his arms around me and said, ‘God, am I glad to see you. I’ve got all these guys coming back, and I’m the only person in the department’ ” Mr. Heffernan said.
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.
“He took advantage of the opportunity to get tested by an industrial psychologist and he asked dad what his job possibilities were. Dad said he could either continue this academic thing or have a research job and he said, “Don’t take either, you’ll be very unhappy if you do. You should be in industry; you have an entrepreneurial mindset.”
Mr. Heffernan left the university and started as a metallurgist at the Western Iron & Steel Foundry in British Columbia. He noticed they were using primitive techniques.
“It was run by a bunch of Scots, tough guys, and it was all a black art. The melter would judge the temperature of the steel by eye, depending on the colour of the steam,” Mr. Heffernan recalled in later life. He convinced them to get an optical pyrometer to accurately measure the temperature.
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.
Hamilton-based giant Stelco put pressure on this new upstart competitor and Mr. Heffernan sold the Edmonton operation to Stelco in 1962. He then opened a mini-mill in Whitby, Ont., competing with Stelco in its backyard.
He eventually built a mini-mill empire called Co-Steel.
“With the group’s sales approaching $1-billion a year, Mr. Heffernan has created one of Canada’s largest private companies,” John Partridge wrote in The Globe and Mail in 1984.
His colleagues in the world of science were more impressed with his innovations in steelmaking.
Mr. Heffernan continued to fine-tune the technology used in mini-mills, fired by electric arc furnaces, opening plants in the United States and Britain. Steel analysts in the 1980s praised Mr. Heffernan for his technological advances and for encouraging the loyalty of his employees through profit sharing.
The technology of making steel with mini-mills was adopted in many places in the world, driving many older and heavily polluting steel mills out of business. One of Mr. Heffernan’s plants in Texas could turn out a ton of steel in just 1.8 person-hours, compared to six to eight person-hours for a traditional large steel mill.
Mr. Heffernan was involved in many scientific and business enterprises in his long life. His friend Alan Bernstein recalls he wasn’t one to give up. When Mr. Bernstein was visiting him in Florida, Mr. Heffernan suggested they go for a swim in rough surf, even though he was walking with two canes.
“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.
Mr. Heffernan and his wife were generous donors to everything from grants for engineering students to opera.
“My father was involved in building [Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Arts], not only donating and raising money but also interviewing the architects for it,” Clare said.
He also gave money to the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering at the University of Toronto, where he earned his engineering degree.
“Their contributions included support for the Heffernan Commercialization Fellowships to help graduate students transfer their research from the lab into viable business applications,” a University of Toronto statement said.
Geraldine died in 2018 and in her memory Mr. Heffernan donated to the Sunnybrook Foundation to support the work of Alzheimer’s expert Dr. Sandra Black.
Mr. Heffernan was made an officer of Order of Canada in 1987. The citations read in part that: “He is renowned worldwide as a founder and developer of major steelmaking organizations and as a highly skilled engineer and scientist.” Mr. Heffernan is also in the Canadian Science Hall of Fame, Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame, and the Canadian Business Hall of Fame as well as honours in the United States and Britain.
Mr. Heffernan was predeceased by his sister, Virginia; brothers, John and William; wife, Geraldine; daughter, Shelagh; granddaughter, Emma; son-in-law Peter; and daughter-in-law Rolande. He leaves his children Joe, Mary Clare, Mark, Helen, Tracy, Teresa and Virginia.