Honouring Our Friend and Colleague, Dean Mountain
February 1, 2022 ·
Contributed by: Khaled Hassanein, Dean, DeGroote School of Business
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It is with great sadness that I share with you the recent passing of our friend and colleague, Dean Mountain.
Dean received his BA in Economics and Mathematics at McMaster University in 1975 and went on to earn graduate degrees in Economics from the University of Western Ontario in the years that followed. His primary interests were related to the energy sector, particularly on the demand side, and he was involved in numerous large research projects under the aegis of the Ontario Energy Board, Ontario Ministry of Energy, Hydro One, the Independent Electric System Operator and Natural Resources Canada, among other agencies.
Dean’s research appeared in leading journals such as Econometrica, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of the American Statistical Association, RAND Journal of Economics, the Review of Economics and Statistics and the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, among others. In recent years Dean had become interested in energy conservation and sustainability and was one of the founders of the Sustainability Minor at McMaster.
Dean’s tenure at DeGroote began on July 1, 1987 and spanned more than three decades. Throughout that time, he was a beloved faculty member in Finance and Business Economics, a member of the McMaster Institute for Energy Studies, a Research Associate of the Program for Quantitative Studies in Economics and Population, the Editor-in-Chief of Energy Studies Review, and an Associate Member in the Department of Economics. In 2011 Dean was awarded DeGroote’s Research to Practice Excellence Award and Natural Resources Canada’s Innovation and Energy Technology Sector Merit Award.
Most recently Dean was leading a project with Hydro One to develop a better understanding of residential electricity consumption patterns during COVID-19.
Dean Mountain will be missed by all who knew him – our students who had the privilege of learning from him, our staff and faculty who worked alongside him, and our community members who benefited from his insights.
Today we honour Dean’s memory and share in his family’s loss.
Regards,
Khaled Hassanein
Dean, DeGroote School of Business
RIP Professor Mountain. I am so honored to have opportunity to learn from you, thank you so much for giving us so great professional insights. You are the extraordinary professor, we will miss you so much!
Dear Dr. Mountain,
It is with great sadness that I hear this heartbroken news. It was my great honour that working with you/learning from you.
Hope you’ll not feel any pain since today
Sincerely,
Tanya
Dear Dr. Mountain,
It saddens me deeply to hear of your untimely passing.
It has truly been an honour and a privilege to have had the opportunity to not only to learn from you in a classroom setting but to work beside you in energy research for a decade.
I have never seen a professor be as understanding, accommodating, supportive and encouraging as you have been wherein, they come after hours, past 7 or 8 pm and sometimes stay till midnight, to the university to have research meetings with former students, not once or twice but consistently for a decade so they can keep a job in industry and continue to learn from you.
What you taught me through our research work opened my eyes to possibilities I had never even imagined, let alone given any serious consideration to in terms of a profession, and has led to my very successful career in the energy industry today.
Thank you so very much for going above and beyond in helping a young immigrant, struggling in a new country to find his feet and build not just a career but also a life. I am forever grateful for all your guidance, support, and encouragement to constantly learn and improve.
Farewell my dear mentor and friend, you will be sorely missed.
With great love and respect,
Farhad Daruwala
Dear Professor Mountain,
It was my great honor and luck to learn from you. I was truly shocked when I saw this. I heard that you’ve been ill but was deeply believing you would be recover very shortly. You have given me enormous help when I studied in one of your course. Not only the inspiring content, but also your kindness and patience on treating each student with every question.
Your mentorship and guidance helped me so much in study and work. I don’t even have words to express my sorrows and sadness. You will always remain alive in my heart.
Sincerely,
Vanessa
I had the exceptionally good fortune to have been hired by Dean into the load research group at Ontario Hydro in the 1980s. Though he left shortly thereafter, I continued to work with him for several years and, during this time, I had a lot of fun and learnt a great deal from him. Indeed, working with him remains one of my favourite periods in my life.
I remember him very fondly, and am deeply saddened upon discovering his passing. He will be missed by many.