Maurice Strong made the world ‘a better place’

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This article was published 01/12/2015 (3781 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Born in the small town of Oak Lake, Maurice Strong’s humble beginnings gave way to a world-renowned career in international development and environmental activism. It was announced on Saturday that Strong had died at the age of 86.

Strong’s work as founding executive director of the United Nations Environment Program helped plant the seed for the global climate summit happening in Paris this week.

He was a driving force behind the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment, the 1992 Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and the Kyoto Protocol.

“Mr. Strong was an internationally recognized environmentalist and philanthropist who used his remarkable business acumen, organizational skills, and humanity to make the world a better place,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a statement over the weekend.

In a 1975 Brandon Sun article, Strong outlined 10 steps that could be taken to curb climate change, which included stabilizing the world’s population, reducing the reliance on natural resources and rejigging the world economy.

“If the task is monumental, the stakes are even more so. At risk is the human future … I am equally convinced that it will be determined largely by what we decide or fail to decide in the next decade,” Strong said in the article.

Forty years later, 196 UN members are now sitting down to try to reach a global agreement on climate change — the effects of which are becoming increasingly apparent.

“As an organization, we still benefit very much today from (Strong’s) foresight and his vision,” said Jocelyn Sweet, spokeswoman for Canada’s International Development Research Centre.

Strong helped establish the IDRC in 1970 as a tool for the Canadian government to help close the science and technology gap between rich and poor countries.

“He recognized the need for … specific data to help inform the efforts of the external aid office to establish policy and practice and programming,” Sweet said, adding that the IDRC is part of the government’s official UN delegation at COP21.

Sweet says Strong’s death is a blow, but the organization is proud to carry his legacy forward.

Despite his international reputation, Strong maintained roots with his home community of Oak Lake throughout his life.

“He did visit, mostly on fair day when practically everybody that ever lived here would be home,” longtime Oak Lake resident Jean McQuarrie told the Sun.

Like many of Strong’s school mates, McQuarrie remembers him as a fiercely intelligent and adventurous young man who was, above all else, humble.

“He was a gentleman through and through, and extremely clever, a genius in his own right,” she said. “We all knew that he was going to make his mark in the world.”

Born in 1929, Strong grew up during the Depression and despite living in extreme poverty, the young pupil took his education seriously, according to a biography on mauricestrong.net.

Oakwood School’s principal at the time, Clarence (Curly) Heapy, was a major influence on, and supporter of, Strong.

“One time, when (Maurice) wasn’t there, the principal said he could write better than the (textbook) itself,” said Lionel Fillion, a high school classmate and “very close buddy” of Strong’s.

When Strong was in his early teens, he took a job with the Hudsons Bay Co. and spent several months at a northern trading post.

McQuarrie says while Strong was usually tight-lipped about his adventures — which included stowing away on a boat in the Great Lakes and riding the rails to Vancouver — he openly shared his tales of the North with his classmates.

“He had unending praise for the North and the Inuit people up there. He really, really appreciated their lifestyle and their coping abilities,” she said.

Strong developed an early appreciation for nature and McQuarrie says he would spend days at a time in the sand hills south of Oak Lake.

“I think he had an understanding of nature that he acquired on his own that he didn’t read about,” she said.

Community members also remember Strong as a philanthropist who donated to Oak Lake’s community centre, church and museum after he moved away.

“He was always proud of his Oak Lake roots and he would help out in so many ways,” Oak Lake and District Museum committee member Denise Griffith said.

Griffith says Strong offered to give the museum all of his work to display, but the sheer volume of documents was too much for the small building to take on.

“We would’ve had to build a new room for all of it,” she said.

Although the museum does have eight of his awards on display, including his Companion of the Order of Canada (2000) and his Order of Manitoba (2005).

While he never attended university, Strong received 53 honorary degrees from schools around the world, including a doctorate from Brandon University in 1968.

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