Brian McCarry to be honoured with new endowed scholarship

He was a fixture at McMaster for nearly four decades.

Now, a brand new endowed scholarship in Brian McCarry’s name will preserve his legacy and promote his life’s work for years to come.

Beginning as early as 2016, the Brian McCarry Graduate Chemistry Scholarship will award $1,000 to one graduate student each year. McCarry died suddenly on July 7, 2013 while travelling in Iceland with his partner, Twyla.

Winners will be selected based on academic standing and departmental recommendations, with an emphasis on those doing industry-related research. Nearly $30,000 in gifts from McMaster students, staff, alumni and other donors will be used to fund the award.

The new scholarship will also stand as a lasting tribute to McCarry — longtime chair of the Department of Chemistry, beloved instructor and a renowned air quality researcher who enjoyed a 37-year career at McMaster.

Nearly two years after his death, he remains a prominent figure both on and off campus.

“He knew absolutely everybody, and he was extremely well-liked by students and staff,” said Willie Leigh, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and a longtime colleague and friend of McCarry’s.

“He was a very important member of our community here at McMaster, and he was a major influence on all of us.”

Leigh, who joined the Department of Chemistry back in 1983, says McCarry was one of the first senior faculty members to take him under his wing. He was inspired by McCarry’s “bubbly, effusive” personality, his passion for nurturing young minds and his pioneering interest in the studying the relationship between climate change, human health and heavy industry.

The Plastimet fire at 8 p.m. on July 9, 1997, roughly 15 minutes after the fire began. 

He was also known for being an active and well-respected field researcher.

Two days after the infamous Plastimet fire erupted on a warm July evening in 1997, McCarry grabbed a pair of respirators and set off in the direction of the billowing plume.

Along with the help of a McMaster graduate student, Laurie Allan, he positioned an air sampler on the roof of a nearby building to monitor particulate matter and hazardous contaminants in the smoke.

By the time McCarry and Allan’s sampler was up and running, the blaze had forced some 650 Hamilton residents out of their homes in a temporary evacuation.

The team’s crucial air samples, later analyzed by the Ontario Ministry of Environment, helped determine some of the estimated health risks for area residents at various distances from the blaze.

“Brian took a very serious interest in educating the public,” said Leigh. “He wasn’t just an active voice and proponent of air quality research, he was out there doing the work, too.”

McCarry also served as chair of both Clean Air Hamilton and the Hamilton Air Monitoring Network for more than a decade, and remained active with the Bay Area Restoration Council from 1997-2008, including one term on the board.

In 2005, he received the Canadian Environment Award in Climate Change, and was named the 26th recipient of the Victor Cecilioni Award for Hamilton Environmentalist of the Year.

Most recently, McCarry was director of the McMaster Occupational and Environmental Health Laboratory from 2006-2013, and acting chair of the Department of Biology from 2011-2013.

At the time of his death, McCarry also held the Jarislowsky Chair in Environment & Health at McMaster — a position he retained since 1999.

He is survived by his partner Twyla, his daughter Aislinn and his son Adrian. His son Tom died in November, 2014.

The graduate scholarship was formally unveiled during a Feb. 20 social gathering and memorial service at the University Club. Additional gifts will serve to increase the value of the scholarship, and can be made securely below:

Make a contribution to the Brian McCarry Graduate Chemistry Scholarship.