R E S E A R C H A S S O C I A T E
U N I V E R S I T Y O F T O R O N T O
Independent Historian and Author
Part-time Lecturer, Department of History, University of Toronto Mississauga
Address: 172 Willow Avenue, Toronto , Ontario M4E 3K5; Tel: 416-528-4971; E-mail: richard_white@rogers.com and richard.white@utoronto.ca
Richard White is a Canadian historian specializing in the history of the urban planning and civil engineering professions, and a regular lecturer in Canadian history at University of Toronto Mississauga. He is currently at work, with support from the Neptis
Foundation, on a history of urban and regional planning in the Toronto region since the
Second World War.
Dr. White received his Ph.D. in Canadian history from the University of Toronto in 1995, with a thesis on the professional careers of two 19th-century Canadian civil engineers.
He subsequently published several scholarly books and articles on the social and cultural history of Canadian engineering, and for his contributions to the history of
Canadian civil engineering he was awarded the W. Gordon Plewes Award by the
Canadian Society of Civil Engineering in 2006. He also wrote a number of contract and commissioned histories in the fields of engineering, technology, and business. Among his clients are the National Museum of Science and Technology and the National
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Parks Canada. His overview history of the
Canadian automobile industry, originally done for the Canada Science and Technology
Museum in 1998, is being published by the Museum in 2007. In 2003 he wrote a history of the Toronto region's postwar physical infrastructure for the Neptis Foundation, and subsequently worked for the Foundation as an advisor in the development of their research program.
Richard White is a member of the Canadian Historical Association, the Society for
American City and Regional Planning History, and a member and past elected director of the Canadian Science and Technology Historical Association. In addition to his association with the Centre for Urban and Community Studies, he is an Associated
Scholar of the University of Toronto's Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology.
Recent Publications
Making cars in Canada: A short history of the Canadian automobile industry, Canada Science and
Technology Museum, 2007 (originally written as a Historical Assessment report for the CSTM, 1998.
“The Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe” in historical perspective , Toronto: Neptis
Foundation, 2007.
Inspiration as instruction: Michael Bliss as a graduate advisor , in Business, Politics and Medicine:
Essays in Honour of Michael Bliss , University of Toronto Press, forthcoming 2007

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Natural modern: Parks, playgrounds, and open spaces in the modernist vision of Toronto, 1950 to
1970 , paper presented to the Society for American City and Regional Planning History conference, Portland,
Maine, October 2007.
Technical expertise and the public good: A case study of the Humber Valley Sewage Treatment
Plant, 1950-1970 , paper presented to the Canadian Science and Technology Historical Association conference, October 2007
T he Toronto-Centred Region: A new look at an old plan , Ontario Planning Journal , December 2006.
The planners and the people: Citizen participation in Toronto urban and regional planning, 1940-
1970 , paper presented to the Canadian Historical Association conference, York University, May 2006.
The Canadianization of Americanization: Regional planning ideas cross the border, 1950-1970 , paper presented to The Americanization of Postwar Architecture conference, University of Toronto Faculty of
Architecture, December 2005.
A case study of planning transformed: Toronto and its region, 1965-1975 , paper presented to the
Society for American City and Regional Planning History conference, Miami, Florida, 20-23 October 2005
Choosing dependence: A new look at the early Canadian automotive industry, 1900-1914 , paper presented to the Canadian Science and Technology Historical Association conference, October 2005.
Civil engineering , Oxford Companion to Canadian History , Gerry Hallowell, ed., Oxford University Press,
2004.
The engineers’ engineer: John Kennedy and the Port of Montreal , Scientia Canadensis 27, 2003.
Urban infrastructure and urban growth in the Toronto Region 1950s to 1990s. Toronto: Neptis
Foundation, Toronto, 2003.
The Skule Story: The University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, 1873 to
2000 , University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering in association with University of
Toronto Press, 2000.
Gentlemen engineers: The working lives of Frank and Walter Shanly, Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 1999.
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