death_date birth_place office birth_date term_start article_title term_end name occupation
28 april 2000 england chairman of tvontario director general of ontario science centre 25 december 1928 1979 1985 jim parr
 1985 1988 james gordon parr mining engineer , broadcaster
jim parr

james gordon -lrb- jim -rrb- parr -lrb- december 25 , 1928 -- april 28 , 2000 -rrb- was an academic , broadcaster and provincial civil servant in the province of ontario , canada .
parr was an engineer by training specializing in metallurgy and he once hosted a programme on cbc radio called `` the mad metallurgist '' aimed at popularizing the discipline .
he also wrote several books on the subject including `` the engineer 's guide to steel '' ; `` man , metals and modern magic '' and `` an introduction to stainless steel '' .
he earned his b.sc .
degree in metallurgy from the university of leeds and worked as a mining engineer before enrolling at the university of liverpool to study his doctorate .
he lectured there before coming to canada to work for inco in sudbury .
he returned to canada in 1953 to work for the british columbia research council and also lectured at the university of british columbia .
in 1955 , he went to the university of alberta to accept an appointment as an associate professor and then full professor .
he moved to windsor , ontario in 1964 to become dean of the faculty of applied science at the university of windsor .
after serving as chairman of the commission on post-secondary education in ontario -lrb- copseo -rrb- and as president of the ontario committee on university affairs , parr was appointed deputy minister of colleges and universities - a civil service position for the provincial government .
in addition to writing poetry , parr composed selections for the piano and wrote operettas that were performed at the toronto arts & letters club .
two years before his untimely death , parr produced a cd , `` when music sounds '' , consisting solely of his own songs , sung by canadian tenor james leatch accompanied by pianist dona jean clary .
in 1979 , he was appointed chairman of tvontario during which time he unsuccessfully sought a license for the network from the canadian radio-television and telecommunications commission -lrb- crtc -rrb- to launch a national children 's channel .
in 1985 he was appointed director-general of the ontario science centre for a three-year term .
