8012

 

8012 William Sydney (Bill) Andrews


Grew Up in Campbellville, a rural southern Ontario community of some 250 souls.

Attended High School at University of Toronto Schools (UTS) in Toronto

Attended RMC 1965-1969, commissioned as an Armour officer into Royal Canadian Dragoons (RCD)

1969 posted to Valcartier, one year at Defence Research Establishment Valcartier and then two years at 12ème Régiment Blindé du Canada (12e RBC). Roméo Dallaire and I, along with a bunch of other classmates, were promoted captain on the same day. This was the one and only time Roméo and I shared such an event.

1972-1974 posted to Lahr to RCD

1974 attended Division 1 of British Army Staff Course at Shrivenham UK (Technical Staff College)

1975-1978 Posted to Gagetown to Armour School

1978-1979 posted to RCD Lahr

1979-1981 posted to CFB Borden

1981-1982 attended staff college in Toronto

1982-1985 posted to Petawawa to 8th Canadian Hussars

1985-1987 posted to NDHQ to Directorate of Land Requirements (Iight armoured vehicles)

1987-1989 posted to RMC to masters program in nuclear engineering, reclassified EME/RCEME

1989-1991 posted to NDHQ as CF radiation safety officer and LCMM for radiation detection equipment

1991-1994 posted to RMC as military faculty

1994 retired from CF and hired at RMC as civilian assistant professor

1995 became first recipient of PhD awarded by RMC

1994-2019 Assistant, Associate and then Professor at RMC (Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Dept).

16 Jan 2019 – retired finally and pretty well completely

31 May 1969 married Suzanne Payne

1971 had two sons born in the same year (Jan and Dec, so not twins) in Loretteville QC

1973 third son born in Lahr Germany

8 Apr 2016 wife Suzanne died of an aggressive liver cancer

9 Dec 2020 married Xiaoying Cao

I have lived on Buck Lake, north of Kingston and south of Westport, since Oct 1997.

In my dotage, I still have three sons, David 53 working as a logistics manager in Toronto, James 52 in IT in Vancouver and Ian 51 an engineer in Ottawa. I have four grandchildren, Sequoia 21 and Harper 19 in Toronto and Matthew 18 and Nicholas 16 in Ottawa. For reasons best known to him, Nick wants to study computer engineering at RMC and become a fighter pilot. I bite my tongue whenever I hear this.

Along the way, I have been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, had two knee operations (one replacement and the other awaiting replacement), three hernia surgeries, two eye surgeries and much earlier, an emergency appendectomy.

Before my body started misbehaving, I spent a lot of time wilderness and whitewater canoeing, including Algonquin and Killarney parks and the French (2x), Spanish, Petawawa and Missinaibi (2x) rivers. I still own two canoes, but have a great deal of trouble getting in and out and also kneeling.

Most significantly, after my wife died, I went back to church and subsequently became a warden for a number of years at a nearby Anglican church, St Mary’s in Newboro. I also have had a book published and am half way through a sequel (both on tank gun systems – real grippers, if I say so myself). After that, I will retire from writing. Finally, I am still a member of a NATO grants review panel, which meets twice yearly in Europe.

My academic research was centred mainly on modelling the atmospheric dispersion of aerosols, applying artificial neural networks to engineering problems, disposing of chemical agent and radiological contamination and weapon effects, particularly combustion and blast phenomena.

I am not living my retirement years as I had envisioned, but I am living and enjoying myself, and hopefully modestly contributing to the betterment of those around me. At least I try.

One highlight is that, over the years, I have been able to spend some 20 months in the South of France, and I have become a francophile. If it weren’t for my bilingual wife (Mandarin and English), I may well have resettled there by now. Ah well…

In all, I did spend a total of 34 years at RMC as a student and professor. I am too close to the institution to provide an objective assessment, as I have seen the warts up close. That said, I can confidently say that it is very far removed from our experiences of some 55 years ago (who would have thought?). It has become much kinder and gentler and not nearly as demanding. Does this serve Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces better? I’ll leave that for others to judge. At the end of the day, I remain grateful I was able to attend when we all did, and I cherish the memories, which keep getting better (and a bit fuzzier) with time.

(L-R) Mohr. Fritsch, Me, Aitken, Malyon, Thomson

2023 Buck Lake, myself and three sons, Dave, Ian and James. I try not to miss meals.


2009 from back to front Malyons, Andrews and MacLeods




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