We are sad to announce that, Professor John Crispo, the founding Director of the Centre for Industrial Relations, passed away on April 27, 2009 in Toronto.

John joined the Department of Political Economy at the University of Toronto in 1961 and established the Centre a short time later, in 1965. He served as its Director until 1971 when he was asked to take on the role of Dean at the Faculty of Management. After his term ended in 1975, he continued to teach industrial relations to generations of both graduate and undergraduate students. He retired from the university in 1996 and became Professor Emeritus.

Morley Gunderson writes …

John Crispo was largely responsible for bringing me here to the Centre for Industrial Relations in 1971, and for that I will be forever grateful. He said, with that endearing grin, that he felt that the Centre needed a dull, back-room researcher to be a complement to his practical and populist orientation. My immediate image was Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Given my girth, I knew who I was. When my family first arrived in Toronto, he graciously invited us to his farm and welcomed us into his family. He was as much at home on his tractor and installing fence posts as he was working on his academic writing. When an important ILO official came to the farm for a meeting, John couldn't be pulled away from a discussion he was having with a local farmer.

But instead of tilting at windmills, John set the foundation for some solid ones: the Centre for Industrial Relations itself; the 1968 Task Force on Labour Relations; Construction labour relations; the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, to name but a few. He also attacked some potentially harmful ones -- protectionism and rent control. And he did so with gusto, panache and sincerity. Being in John's presence has been a wonderful ride and an adventure all the way; it is a privilege I will forever cherish.

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Anil Verma writes …

For years after I joined the Centre, when I told people outside the university about my job they would immediately recall some encounter with John Crispo. That was quintessential Crispo – he made an impression on most people he came across, student or prime minister, by engaging people in debates of one kind or another. Bob White, the former CAW chief used to say that John Crispo loved a good argument. It was his way of educating his friends and enemies. Whenever policy is made anywhere without being informed by a debate it would serve us well to remember John Crispo.

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John will be remembered by his many friends, colleagues, and students for his passionate beliefs, boundless energy, great enthusiasm, enormous charm and incredible humour. He is described by current Dean of the Rotman School of Management, Roger Martin, as a “class act” and “great man”. Indeed, a fitting tribute.

John Crispo – Globe and Mail, Friday May 1, 2009: Globe Life/ Deaths

Globe and Mail, May 1, 2009 : “A pioneer in the field of televised conflict: Pithy insights and memorable quotes made him a media darling -- until Mulroney put him on the board of the CBC ”, by Peter Cheney