GRENVILLE KENNETH YUILL (GREN)

Condolences & Memories (3 entries)

• In the late 1960’s when Gren was teaching at the U of Manitoba, he taught me thermodynamics. My recollection is that he had recently been to Cuba, sported a Castro style beard and smoked Cuban cigars. In the late 1970’s when Gren was in the engineering consulting business, he employed me on a range of energy efficiency projects. He generated new research ideas almost daily and was very successful at convincing government agencies that they should fund his ideas. More than forty years later I am still with the firm he hired me into, still having fun doing oddball energy efficiency and building science projects. Thank you, Gren. In the late 1980’s when Gren was at Penn State and was active in ASHRAE at Society level, I decided to get involved in ASHRAE. He appointed me secretary to a committee he was chairing. Because of his contributions to ASHRAE, his endorsement eased my entry into a community that has since given me valued friends and contacts around the world and provided me many interesting opportunities. It was in ASHRAE that I most enjoyed Gren’s energy and off-the-wall ideas, because I didn’t need to worry that he would score funding for some harebrained, impossible idea that I would be tasked to complete. He brought his absurd sense of humour into the committees he served on, lightening up what could otherwise be a tedious grind. Thank you, again. Gren was an enjoyable and interesting character with a zany way of seeing the world. He was never mean spirited, even when he had a serious gripe with someone. I don’t think he had a mean bone in his body. I only knew one person that disliked Gren - a fellow faculty member from Penn State. That guy argued that the recognition Gren got for his contributions on ASHRAE codes and standards (his contributions were significant) was not deserved, as was the funding he scored for research at Penn State but most egregiously, Gren negotiated an annual leave to go moose hunting while at Penn State… all things for which I thought Gren should be admired. It was a privilege to know and work with Gren. He will be missed. - Posted by: Bert Phillips (friend, colleague) on: Jan 26, 2021

• Barb, Kevin, David, Mark, Katie and Familes, I was very saddened to to learn of Gren's passing. My deepest condolences on the the loss of Gren. He was a very loving family man and will truly be missed. - Posted by: Terry Kjartanson (Family Friend) on: Jan 26, 2021

• I first knew Gren when I was an undergraduate and former student of his when I was studying Mechanical Engineering at the U. of Manitoba, and he was one of our professors. Not only was he a good teacher, he was an engaging and entertaining guy after teaching hours and we attended a number of extra-curricular events together. His then-famous "flame-throwing" gig was always a big hit! Gren helped me in no small measure to secure, as he had done some years before, an Athlone Fellowship to pursue post-graduate studies in the UK. That was one of the greatest experiences of my life as I not only achieved my Masters Degree in Thermodynamics there (also at Birmingham University), but met and married my lovely and loving wife Christine, to whom I've been married now for 55 years. After I returned from the UK and was looking for a job, Gren managed to get me a temporary position at the U. of Manitoba, working as his assistant on a research project he had secured. That led to a faculty teaching position in the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, where Gren and I then worked as colleagues for another year until I accepted a job offer with Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. in Pinawa, Manitoba, where I remained for the rest of my career and where Christine and I and our children and grandchildren still live. After that, I never saw Gren again, but from time to time, heard small bits about where his own career had taken him. I and my family owe so much to Gren and I'm very saddened to hear of his passing. He was one of the good guys. - Posted by: Les Crosthwaite (Friend, former student and colleague) on: Jan 23, 2021