Reginald Burns

Burns, Reginald Robert C.E.T.

Mr. Reginald Robert Burns passed away peacefully after a brief illness at the Hull Hospital on Good Friday, 10 April, 2020. He was born on 27 October, 1936 to the late Helen and Peter Burns in Matheson, Ontario and grew up in Bourlamaque, Québec. In 1956 he graduated from the Haileybury School of Mines in Haileybury, Ontario. After working for a few years in the mining industry in Northern Ontario and Northern Québec, he joined Delcan Group Inc. in 1961 as a senior engineering technician. As a certified member of the Ontario Association of Certified Engineering Technicians and Technologists (OACETT) and the National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies (NICET), Reg remained a proud employee with Delcan for the next 40 years working mainly in the Ottawa area and throughout southern Ontario in construction inspection and field administration on a wide variety of civil engineering projects including tunnel work, reinforced concrete structures, underground services, roadway systems and land development. Other interesting assignments included various places such as the Alaska Highway (British Columbia), Dallas (Texas), Tanzania (East Africa), Calgary (Alberta) and the Avalon Peninsula and Gros Morne National Park (Newfoundland). The last big project he worked on before retirement was the Toronto Sheppard Subway Twin Tunnels completed in 2000. He once proudly declared of his work, “I love what I do and I’m good at it!” In retirement he enjoyed landscaping, the company of the family dog Magou and watching movies with his grandson Vital. He was predeceased by his younger brother Douglas in 1997. He was a devoted, dutiful and loving husband to Pauline Tambeau during 54 years of marriage. He is survived by his wife, his children Eryk (Jillianne Reinseth) and Elizabeth, and his grandson Vital. He is also survived by his son from a previous relationship, Robert Rodger (Sylvie Gauthier), and their two daughters, Kim and Kelly. His cremated remains will be interred alongside his parents and brother in Hillcrest Cemetery in Matheson, Ontario. A Canadian original, he will be greatly missed by all who knew him, now gone to the spirit world