John (‘Jock’) Carleton McKay
Jock passed away peacefully, surrounded by family, on November 29, 2021 at 90 years of age. Predeceased by his beloved son Ken in 2012, Jock is survived by his loving wife of 68 years, Denise, and their children Pat (Ernie), Doug (Anne), Judy (Rob) and Dave. He was also a proud grandfather to Greg, Amanda (Chris), Kevin (Julie), Stephanie, Emilie (Graham), Richard, Andrew, Mike and Shannon and great-grandfather to Elgin and Henry (with another great grandchild on the way).
Jock was born in 1931 in Rossland, British Columbia. He was the second of three sons of Judith (nee Larson) and Bill McKay, an RCMP officer. As cop’s sons, Jock and his brothers learned to defend themselves from bullies with their father’s pugilism techniques. Their mother Judith, on the other hand, tutored them in math and science. She was ambitious for her boys and ensured they all went to university, a rarity in those days. The family lived in several small towns, ultimately settling in Trail BC, where Jock met the love of his life, Denise Miles.
Jock graduated from the University of British Columbia 1954 with a B.A. Sc. in Metallurgical Engineering. He married Denise, then joined Stelco upon graduation and they moved to Ontario. Ultimately he became Stelco’s Director of Research and Development, retiring in 1987. For three years after his retirement, Jock was the Executive Director of a steel research consortium, Projet Bessemer Inc.
At Stelco, he fulfilled his childhood dream to become an applied research scientist. He viewed Stelco’s blast furnaces as his own giant laboratory. Amongst his many innovations, Jock revolutionized continuous annealing of steel strip–still the design basis worldwide for annealing units. With his colleague George Sibakin, Jock re-engineered blast furnace processes, yielding a 60% increase in iron output while achieving a 15% reduction in fuel (coke) consumption. Both inventions garnered American Institute of Metallurgical Engineers (AIME) awards, recognizing outstanding achievement in technology and research.
Jock was a member of the Research Council of Canada and several technical advisory boards for prominent Canadian Universities. He received many steel industry honours, but the greatest honour to him was a bound book of his monthly bulletins given to him by his staff at his retirement celebration. Inside was the inscription:
“Presented to Jock McKay…by the men and women of the Research and Development Department whom he led with distinction, supported with pride, defended with passion, and loved with sincerity.”
As much as he loved his staff and career, Jock’s family was his greatest source of pride. He took a tremendous interest in his children and grandchildren’s schooling, lives and careers. He regularly tutored and mentored them, encouraging each of his offspring to fulfill their potential, which he believed was boundless. Despite his intensity, Jock had a great sense of humour, laughing at his own foibles and affectionately teaching his kids not to take themselves too seriously. Jock cheerfully played a supporting role as ‘Denise’s husband’ at all of her art exhibitions and events, bursting with pride. The McKay home was full of joy, love and laughter.
Jock’s love of family manifested itself in a fascination with genealogy and preserving the past. He wrote a book on his family’s history and encouraged Denise to do the same. He preserved, catalogued and digitized their many family photographs from several decades. He also made sure the family stayed connected by creating a family blog that he lovingly curated for many years. The extended McKay family is blessed with not only their wonderful memories but also a lasting legacy of family history, photos and blog posts created with tremendous love by a wonderful husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. We love you Jock.
A private, immediate family-only celebration of life will take place in January. In gratitude for the wonderful care he received, donations may be made in memory of Jock to the Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation
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Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of John Jock Carleton McKay Monday November 29th 2021..
Death notice for the town of: , Province: Ontario
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