Monday, March 15, 2021
Colin Sargent was friend and colleague for several decades in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan. His skills as a teacher, an engineer, and his overall goodness as a human being made everyone’s life better. He will be missed.
When Colin arrived from Cambridge at the University of Saskatchewan he took up company with group of young, hot-shot mechanical profs that included Richard Burton and Greg Schoenau. I believe they shared an office, which is another story all together. There was an instance when Ehrle Brooks, one of the more senior faculty members, saw an opportunity to exploit the good nature and naevity of the young-guns at the college by getting them to insulate the floor of his cottage at Emma Lake in the early spring. If memory serves, Dr. Mohindar Sachdev also was volunteered for the weekend of work, which was obviously the result of him being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Anyone who has done this kind of project knows that working in a confined space with three other men putting insulation between floor joists is an unpleasant job. We don’t know much about what went on that weekend other than everyone arrived back at work looking like they had a little too much fun. Each participant had a different version of the event, and each seemed more ridiculous than the other. There were rumours that there may have been some nude cross-country skiing – yikes! We weren’t there so we just have to speculate. The end result was that the job was finished at next to no cost and everyone left smiling.
That was the kind of man Colin was. Everything he did turned out better than expected, he made sure everyone had a good experience in the process, and sometimes (although, not always) his methods were a little unconventional.
