Robert Allan Hurd
Scientist, family man, veteran, Meccano enthusiast. Born on June 30, 1921, in Toronto; died on Dec. 27, 2015, in Kemptville, Ont., of natural causes, aged 94.
Allan Hurd grew up an only child, born to working-class British immigrants in Toronto. Life wasn't easy during the Depression years and the family moved often around the city, with young Allan delivering groceries and doing odd jobs to help out. He was fortunate to have a mother who read to him, however, and his sole Christmas present each year was a Meccano set – a gift that inspired a lifelong love of science.
From an early age, he was fascinated by machines and drove his mother to distraction by trying to take apart her sewing machine. Later, inspired by a book, The Boy Electrician, he began to build increasingly elaborate radios.
At 16, he quit school to help his parents in their new business, running the Penguin Inn, with a restaurant, cabins and gas bar, near Gravenhurst, Ont. His creativity found an outlet in the cartoons he drew depicting life there. One, titled "Pigsty Inn: Hot meals served cold," read: "We aim to please but usually don't" and caricatured his father pumping gas from the "Oomph" gas pump while smoking a large cigar.
When Allan turned 21, he joined the war effort as a private, but his talents were spotted almost immediately. After officer training, he landed in Britain in 1944. As a wireless officer with the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals, he helped to liberate Holland. Later in life, he would recall his unit receiving the message of the German surrender and passing it to higher command. He also volunteered to serve in the Pacific theatre and was sent to Missouri in August, 1945, to help train Canadian troops in U.S. methods; not long after, the use of atomic bombs in Japan put an end to the war.
Like many others, the trajectory of Allan's life was changed by the Veterans Rehabilitation Act, which enabled him to complete Grade 13 after the war. Soon after, he entered the University of Toronto for a degree in mathematics and physics. While working at a summer job at the National Research Council in Ottawa, he met Ann Puxley, also a summer student. They married in 1950 and, after a five-month cycling honeymoon around Europe, settled in Ottawa, where they raised four children (Molly, Jack, Tom and Jim).
In 1970, Allan earned his doctorate from the Technical University of Denmark. His 35-year career as a research scientist in antenna theory at the NRC was distinguished by many publications, and the discovery of a way to solve large-scale diffraction problems, known as the Hilbert-Hurd method. His reputation allowed him to travel abroad extensively, and he took on several visiting scientist positions in Germany.
Known for his groan-worthy puns and subversive sense of humour, he continued with his cartooning, creating for his children the flexible superhero, Squashman. He accumulated a large Meccano collection, delighting his 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren with his creations.
Genealogy, collecting P.G. Wodehouse books, building stone walls, planting trees and travelling were other passions, but Allan's deepest connection to a place was to his beloved summer home in East Ragged Island, N.S. There he created a family compound, complete with a museum of coastal Nova Scotia life. A summertime gathering spot for the family, it is the place where his legacy will always be felt.
Molly Hurd is Allan's daughter.