Dr. James Lawrence Warner

It is with a deep feeling of loss that his family announces Dr. James (Jim) Lawrence Warner, 91, of Halifax, died suddenly on July 15, 2025, at home. He had been recovering from a half-hip replacement of a few months previous, but otherwise seemed in excellent health.

He was born in Halifax on July 6, 1934, to James L. Warner and Bridget E. Warner (Healy). Jim was an outstanding athlete in his youth, but had other plans. At seventeen, in conversation with then-coach and general manager Sam Pollock, in the man’s office, Jim declined a contract with the Montreal Junior Canadians because, at the time, the Montreal organization did not accommodate players’ desire to attend university. Jim went on to excel in both college hockey and in track and field, a high point being the 1954 Commonwealth Games, when he represented Canada as a sprinter and member of the relay team.

He attended Saint Mary’s University and then the Nova Scotia Technical College (later known as TUNS and now part of Dalhousie University) where in 1956 he received his degree in Mechanical Engineering. He then went on to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, where in 1957 he received a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering. He received a PhD in Oceanography from Dalhousie University in 1970.

In 1951 Jim met his wife, Edith (Anderson), in Halifax. They married in 1957, and lived for a time in Norwalk, Connecticut, where Jim worked for a year for Remington Rand. He also continued to compete in track and field, as a member of the storied New York Athletic Club. When pressed, he might recount having been a member of the relay team that, at a meet in Madison Square Gardens in 1958, set an indoor record for the 4x440 relay. Edith was there to see it.

Jim and Edith returned to Halifax and had three sons, James, John and Robert. Jim by then had joined the faculty at the Nova Scotia Technical College, where he eventually served as the head of the mechanical engineering department, and for a while coached the hockey team. During those years, Jim and Edith, with their three boys, often travelled throughout Nova Scotia and beyond, in a series of station wagons, freighted with a series of springer spaniel dogs and, depending on the season, either swimming, camping, hockey, hunting or fishing gear. Jim passed on to his sons his love of outdoor life, which he had from his own father.

In 1974, with two colleagues from the university, Jim formed an engineering consulting firm, Martec Limited, that pioneered in Canada the use of numerical modelling and computer-based analysis for industry and government. Jim retired from teaching in 1991 to focus his professional activities on Martec, where, under his leadership as President and CEO, and with the help of two of his sons, James and John, along with many talented employees, the company enjoyed continued growth and success. In 2008 the family sold Martec to the U.K firm Lloyd’s Register, wherein it continues to operate.

After his retirement from Martec, Jim and Edith continued to live in Halifax, and, along with their sons, focused on further developing a vineyard they had begun planting on a farm they bought in 1990, in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley. Under the day-to-day management of Jim and Edith’s son John and John’s wife Anne (Livingstone), Warner Vineyards grew to become Nova Scotia’s premier independent commercial vineyard, and remains a reliable supplier of grapes to a number of the Province’s wineries.

As long as he was able, Jim continued to enjoy occasional hunting and fishing outings alongside his two grandsons, Michael and David, the sons of Robert and his wife Janet (Dr. Cullinan).

For many years Jim provided calm, steady and judicious leadership as President of both the Offshore Trade Association of Nova Scotia (OTANS) and the Grape Growers Association of Nova Scotia (GGANS), as well as serving on the board of the Winery Association of Nova Scotia. He was a member of the Waegwoltic Club and the Ashburn Golf Club, and both the Nova Scotia and PEI Springer Spaniel Clubs.

Jim is survived by his wife Edith Marion, his sons James Patrick, Dr. John Michael (Anne), and Robert Anderson (Dr. Janet Cullinan) and their children Michael and David. He is also survived by his brother Donald Bernard (Maxine), and niece Eleanor. He is preceded in death by his parents, and his sister Bryde Elizabeth.

Funeral service, officiated by Father Craig Cameron, will be held at Saint Thomas Aquinas Church on Oxford Street on Friday, July 25, from 9:30 am. Visitation on July 24 at JA Snow Funeral Home, Lacewood Drive, from 4:00 to 7:00 pm.