Ronald Thomas Lake

Ronald Thomas Lake passed away August 31, 2019 at the age of 70. Ron’s death was sudden and his family and friends are mourning this painful loss. A celebration of Ron’s life was held at the H.R. MacMillan Planetarium on September 7th during which family and friends met to share their memories of this uniquely talented and loving person whose death has left a great hole in our lives. We will all miss him to the end of our lives.

Ron was born, the second eldest of four boys, to Ethel and Ronald Thomas Lake in Vancouver in 1949 and grew up in North Vancouver. His brothers, who survive him, from youngest to oldest are Grant, Michael and Ralph. Ron attended Canyon Heights Elementary, Balmoral Junior High and Handsworth Senior Secondary. At each of these, his teachers were always impressed with his keen mind and desire to understand things. In 1964, the family moved to the GTA where he continued to excel. At the conclusion of grade 13, he shared first prize at the Toronto Science Fair with a wind tunnel that he constructed in the basement of the family home.This was one of a series of inventions and projects that Ron had undertaken going back to childhood. One of these was what he called “The Recording Compass” which was to work much like the GPS we find on cell phones today. These were the products of a young and inquisitive mind, even if some of them were not feasible in their day.

Ron studied Engineering Science at the University of Toronto where he bucked the prevailing trend of a science-only curriculum by taking courses in the Arts such as English literature, Spanish and Psychology. He liked to call this “poetical engineering.” Initially, the faculty of the Engineering Science department declined his request to do this, but they were overruled by Professor Bernard Etkin who had the previous year awarded Ron first prize at the science fair. There was only one condition--he had to maintain good grades in all his regular subjects.

Upon graduation, Ron pursued two masters degrees--one in Aeronautical Engineering, the other in Mathematics. He also spent summers working at the University of Toronto’s Institute for Aerospace Studies. This was during the heady days of the Apollo missions which remained a lifelong interest of Ron’s.

In 1975, Ron married Joelle Alhadef. They passed many happy years together and had two children Stephanie and Amielle. Ron was also stepfather to Joelle’s son Mickey Gringorten. Ron was a loving father who helped raise his children with the same love for ideas that he possessed. In 1987 they moved to Vancouver where Ron had grown up, and settled into a busy life of activities that involved hiking, swimming lessons and camping. Ron was also an avid outdoorsman and he passed this enthusiasm on to his children.

During these years Ron was an engineer with such firms as Vibron, DSMA and MacDonald-Dettwiler. At the same time, Joelle formed her own company which translated professional reports from English to French. They spent part of many summers in France in the region of Marseilles where Joelle was born and grew up.

In 1998, Ron embarked on a long-held dream of forming his own company with the founding of Galdos Systems Inc. It was at this time that Ron created GML or Geography Markup Language, a cousin to the internet backbone HTML. It was GML and XML, also developed at Galdos, that became part of the superstructure for Google Earth. Ron spent years convincing governments and companies to adopt the GML standard. Subsequently, the company produced INdicio, a software product that was based on GML which the company sold to businesses worldwide.

Ron retired from this field in 2016, after the sale of his company, though he retained an active interest in its activities. His retirement years were dedicated to his grandchildren Odette Assonitis (Amielle and Damien), Vera and Lucie Andrew (Stephanie and Alan) and Noah and Atley Gringorten (Mickey and Leann) who meant the world to him. True to form, Ron explored ways to introduce ideas about science and mathematics to them so as to impart that same sense of wonder that he had felt as a child and as a young man. He also spent much time writing music both choral and instrumental. These compositions often sprang from poetry that he loved for years such as Archibald Macleish’s The Two Priests or Whitman’s Vigil Strange I kept on the Field. Had Ron lived longer, it is certain he would have completed these pieces which reveal deep insights into the poetry that inspired them. Several of Ron’s compositions were featured at the Vancouver Sonic Boom concerts and one was performed by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Ron also studied composition under the renowned composer Rodney Sharman.

Ron is greatly missed by his family and friends. In recent years he struggled with epilepsy. If you wish to honour Ron’s memory, please make a contribution to Epilepsy Canada.