It is with heavy hearts and great sadness that we announce the passing of Harihar Dey, who passed away suddenly and peacefully on March 27th, 2026.

Harihar’s life story is one of outsized leaps from humble beginnings in India, to great technical achievement, and the building of a family life here in the West.

Harihar was born on September 1st, 1933 in Kusumi Village, West Bengal, a rural agricultural village in the vicinity of famous Shantiniketan. With only 200 families living in the village, Harihar enjoyed early life with simple pleasures and playing local sports such as “Chaand Douraa Ddouri” and Haa Doo Doo”. Harihar’s grandfather, Prataap Chandra De had a great influence on him, giving him insight into ancient Sanskrit proverbs on eating and health. Being the youngest of four brothers, Harihar was influenced by their achievements. His eldest brother became a school teacher, while his third oldest brother earned a Ph.D. in Sanskrit and later became a college professor. With exceptionally high scholastic achievement of his own, it didn’t take long for Harihar to realize that his destiny lay beyond the confines of his home village. The village school only taught up to Grade Four. For further education, Harihar would travel 2 miles to Daksingram High School, which emphasized English instruction. Harihar stood first in the district for the district-wide scholarship exam. This earned him a scholarship of four rupees per month which was substantial at the time. Harihar then transitioned to a boarding house where he attended Kandi Raj High School. Here Harihar became actively involved in student life, leading the Saraswati puja for fellow students, and continuing to excel at his studies. Harihar then progressed to Suri Vidyasagar College, where he studied Intermediate Level of Science. Following the final matriculation exam, Harihar stood first in the Murshidabad district, earning him a two-year scholarship and entrance to Presidency College, Calcutta. Harihar initially considered Medicine, but realized a true interest in Physics and Mathematics. At Presidency College, Harihar earned his B.Sc. (Honours) in Physics. Then, based on the advice of a mentor, Harihar gleefully chose to study Engineering at Indian Institutes of Technology, Kharagpur, where he received a four-year scholarship. Initially thinking about Electrical Engineering as a specialty, Harihar eventually chose Civil Engineering (Hydroelectric Projects), since India had embarked on post-independence nation-building projects. Harihar then trained at Damodar Valley Corporation before graduating from I.I.T. with Honours in 1957.

For his first real job, through the placement program at I.I.T., Harihar joined Braithwaite & Company, where he practiced welding and fabrication techniques, and training included both shop-floor and drawing office experience. Realizing that his pay at Braithwaite was low, Harihar considered other opportunities including construction, but finally settled on a teaching position at Suri Polytechnic, where he was appointed without interview, based on his reputation. While his standard of living had improved, Harihar found teaching to be easy enough, but not challenging enough. Yearning for real work in Engineering, Harihar continued his job search while teaching, and eventually received a job offer from Hind Construction for a role as Design Engineer. Here he learned pre-stressed concrete bridge design, and he gained practical experience with not only design, but site supervision as well. Harihar then moved on to a higher-paying role at Imperial Chemical Industries, a British company with terrific working conditions. In addition to his regular duties, Harihar was tasked with giving non-civil engineer employees informational seminars on what Civil Engineers did and their importance.

Now that Harihar’s career was in a stable place, his family back home turned him to the subject of marriage. After several “chance” meetings with Ashima Chaudhury arranged by his family, Harihar eventually married Ashima on July 5th, 1960. As a wedded couple, Harihar and Ashima remained in Calcutta (Kolkata) until February of 1964 when they moved to Kumardhubi in Bihar State. Here, Harihar found career growth at Kumardhubi Engineering Works (K.E.W). Although Kumardhubi was uncomfortably hot during the summers, it offered an enjoyable lifestyle due to the legacy left behind by the British. Due to some after-effects of Indian independence, as a British company, K.E.W., was no longer seen as competitive due to their high overhead, and they were starting to lose contracts. A good friend of Harihar at K.E.W., Ashim Bhattercharyya was urged by his European-born wife to move to Canada. Ashim quipped that Harihar and Ashima should join him in the move to Canada. Harihar was initially not interested. Very soon after that, a meeting with another good friend and mentor, Mr. Nilangshu Ghosh revealed that he had also applied for a job in Canada, and he encouraged Harihar to do the same. He gave Harihar the name of the Canadian company, Trenton Works, a division of Hawker Siddeley in Nova Scotia. To appease his friend, Harihar wrote only a one-page handwritten letter to Trenton Works outlining his education and experience. Harihar had zero expectation of any response, since overseas job offers rarely happened. Weeks later he received a rejection letter from Trenton Works saying there were no suitable positions available there, but that his application letter was being retained by Hawker Siddeley’s Head Office. Harihar had now given up on a job in Canada, and informed his friend, Mr. Nilangshu Ghosh accordingly.

Weeks later, Harihar surprisingly received a letter from the Chief Designer of Canadian Bridge Company, another division of Hawker Siddeley located in Windsor, Ontario, asking for a more detailed resume. With the future of K.E.W. in question, Harihar forwarded his full resume. In August, 1965, Harihar received a letter from Canadian Bridge Company offering him a modest salary to work in Canada, and the same letter was sent to the Canadian embassy in New Delhi, asking them to immediately issue Harihar a Canadian visa. After much indecision which included postponing an immigration interview with a Canadian Embassy official, and the expected birth of Harihar’s second child, he decided to postpone any move to Canada until 1967. His game plan was to move to Canada, gain foreign experience, then move back to India and enjoy a more senior position. The move back to India never happened. On April 6th, 1967, Harihar Dey arrived at the Toronto International Airport, and then flew on to Windsor, Ontario. Ashima and their two children arrived on June 18th of the same year. Harihar later described his friend, Mr. Nilangshu Ghosh as his “Messenger of Destiny”. Curiously, in the end Mr. Nilangshu Ghosh never emigrated to Canada himself.

Canadian Bridge Company arranged lodgings for Harihar at the Y.M.C.A. Upon arrival in Windsor, Harihar was befriended by the Subramanyans, a South-Indian family living in Windsor. Mr. Subramanyan was an engineer at Chrysler in Windsor and was happy to show Harihar the ways of Canadian life. Other early friends in Canada included the family of Major Sunil Gupta, a retired dentist with the Indian army, the family of Ratul Sen, a Bengali former resident of Delhi, and the family of Tejen Bose, a fellow engineer.
Harihar's career at Canadian Bridge Company started out slow, with him being relegated to the drafting room. After self-advocating, Harihar became involved with the design of the Burrard Inlet Bridge, and then the Dartmouth Suspension Bridge.

In 1972, Harihar earned his Masters Degree in Civil Engineering (Structures) from the University of Windsor.

After a short career with Canadian Bridge, Harihar moved the family to Toronto in 1973 where he worked for EBASCO, an engineering consulting firm. After a very short stay there, Harihar joined Ontario Hydro in 1974 as Senior Development Design Engineer, and then progressed through positions of increasing seniority including Senior Design Specialist, and finishing his career before retirement as Supervising Design Engineer. With the advent of the CANDU nuclear reactor system in the 1970's and 1980's, Ontario was forced to upgrade it's transmission infrastructure from 230 Kilovolt transmission towers to 500 Kilovolt transmission towers throughout Southwestern Ontario. Harihar was front and centre in the design of these new transmission towers, and many of them are visible along Highway 401 between Chatham and Windsor.

Utilizing the power of computers for engineering design was a novel concept in the early 1970's. Most engineers still used slide rules at that time. Harihar saw the need to exploit the power of computers in order to create the enormous number of iterative calculations necessary for the variables he was faced with. With no formal training, Harihar acquired an expert command of the computer language FORTRAN, and fully exploited this on a Sperry UNIVAC mainframe system to aid in error-free calculations. He was seen as somewhat of a pioneer in this area.

In retirement, Harihar found great joy in spending time with his grandchildren, Nolan, Alisha, Nathaniel, and Kobi. Harihar also coached his grandchildren in Mathematics, and encouraged and facilitated extra tutoring.

Harihar was an integral part of Toronto’s Bengali community, regularly attending general meetings and seasonal celebrations. Harihar’s deep knowledge of Sanskrit allowed him to host seminars for his fellow Bengalis where he would give deep explanations of the various verses of the Bhagavad Gita.

Harihar was a devoted father who always put family first. Harihar was a joyful man, who was always happiest when he had family around him. He will be sorely missed. He is survived by his wife, Ashima, daughters Mitoo and Anita, son Tito, daughter-in-law Leslie, and grandchildren Nolan, Alisha, Nathaniel, Kobi, and Alex.