Pemberton Cyrus' life was rich with purpose, impact and depth
July 10, 2025
While universities provide the framework for institutional excellence, it is the people within them who champion the pursuit of high standards and excellent outcomes.
Dr. Pemberton Cyrus, said Dalhousie University President & Vice-Chancellor Dr. Kim Brooks, was one of those people who elevated the university to great heights.
The former head of the Department of Industrial Engineering passed away suddenly on June 24 at his home in Bedford, Nova Scotia.
He was 65.
Brooks met Cyrus shortly after arriving on campus in 2010.
“We crossed paths in ways familiar to many of us in this room, serving on committees, navigating and shifting administrative roles, trying to fix things, sometimes quietly, sometimes persistently,” she said at the funeral on July 9. “What struck me even then and became clearer every time we had the chance to work together was that Pemberton just didn’t want things to function. He wanted them to be fair, efficient and always equitable.”
The Canadian Association of Law Teachers’ past president said Cyrus possessed a remarkable combination of systems thinking and personal care.
“He could map out a complex academic process, suggest a way to streamline it and then turn around and ask with real concern how a student was doing or whether someone on the team was being supported,” noted the former Queen’s University and University of British Columbia law professor. “He wasn’t performing care. He embodied it. You could see the same sensibility in his research.
“Whether he was simulating ways to improve the ergonomics of grocery check stands, optimizing logistics routes to reduce emissions in Atlantic Canada or helping us understand why second-year engineering students sometimes lose their confidence, Pemberton always saw the human within the system. He wanted to make processes better and smarter, but ultimately, he wanted to make people’s lives better. He did it for decades…For Pemberton, the work was never abstract. It was about legacy, and it was about his family.”
Dr. John Newhook, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, said Cyrus was a valued faculty member and a pillar of the Industrial Engineering department.
“His exceptional leadership was the guiding force for so many important initiatives within Dal,” he noted. “He was known for his deep passion for our student community and dedication to the goals and aspirations of Imhotep’s Legacy Academy. Most importantly, he was a friend to so many of us.”
While professors’ primary focus is on academic pursuits, many play crucial roles in community outreach and supporting underserved youth.
Led by a volunteer board of directors from Dalhousie and the community, Cyrus chaired the Imhotep Legacy Academy (ILA) program that provides academic support and mentorship to mainly Grade 6 to 12 students.
The program also engages young people in STEM enrichment activities to enhance the representation of Black professionals in science.
Brooks said Cyrus was pivotal to its growth and success.
“The academy is one of the most meaningful outreach programs in Nova Scotia and that is not by accident,” she pointed out. “Under Pemberton’s leadership, it became a province-wide initiative, supporting thousands of Black students in STEM education. The academy flourished under his care. He helped build a pipeline not just in engineering programs, but also the confidence, belonging and opportunity.”
Joining ILA in 2009, Cyrus took over as chair four years later when co-founder Dr. Kevin Hewitt stepped down.
“He came in to provide solid leadership that the academy required for its growth and continued success,” he said. “The academy’s remarkable growth over the past decade is a result of his outstanding leadership skills, deep commitment to equity and social justice, his keen intellect, his analytical skills as a physicist and his great ability to collaborate seamlessly with all…To effect change, you have to have both a bottom-up and a top-down approach. This is a place where he excelled. His desire to help Black students advance knew no bounds. He accepted any opportunity to do so gladly and acted with alacrity.”
Under Cyrus’ leadership, ILA provides hands-on STEM learning, mentorship, and pathways into post-secondary education, significantly increasing the number of African Nova Scotian/African descent students entering Dalhousie Engineering.
“Pemberton was always making sure they were succeeding and doing well,” said ILA co-founder Dr. Barb Hinch who is Assistant Vice-Provost Equity & Inclusion at Dalhousie. “There were times we met with students who were struggling and Pemberton was there to usher them to successful completion. He had a way of making you feel valued and supported.”
In 2023, Cyrus was recognized with the Discovery Centre’s Science Champion Award for his outreach leadership to the Black Nova Scotian community.
Establishing a Black Faculty and Staff Caucus was at the top of Dr. Afua Cooper’s list when she arrived at Dal in the summer of 2011 to become the third James R. Johnston Endowed Chair in Black Canadian Studies.
Cyrus was one of the first people she met.
“He supported the idea wholeheartedly, offered wise and thoughtful counsel and generously provided space in the Industrial Engineering department for our meetings,” said Cooper who is a professor in the Department of Historical & Cultural Studies at the University of Toronto. “It is because of his support that the Caucus was launched with strength and clarity of purpose. I will always remember him for that and his quiet strength, moral clarity and the grace with which he led as a scholar, a leader and a human being.”
Dalhousie is a popular choice for international students.
Mark Okerke, who left Nigeria six years ago and is a mechanical engineering student at Dal, said Cyrus transcended what it meant to live a good life.
“He stood out in every crowd not because he demanded attention, but because his presence was undeniable,” he said. “From a late-day conversation about professionalism and discipline to gentle moments of mentorship, he showed up and never stopped smiling. As an international student, I often struggled with belonging, direction and self-assurance. As an immigrant himself, Dr. Cyrus had walked some of those same paths. He knew the weight many of us carry, like the isolation, the pressure and the barriers and he transformed that knowledge into empathy, guidance and motivation. His voice was one of the first that reminded me that I had a place here. He always poured into everyone around him and never stopped smiling.”
Cyrus finished high school at Grenada Boys Secondary where he taught and was set to travel to Cuba to pursue architectural studies when he received a scholarship to attend the University of the West Indies St. Augustine campus in Trinidad to study engineering.
After being the top student in his second year and graduating in 1982, he came to Nova Scotia on a Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) scholarship to pursue a Master’s at the Technical University of Nova Scotia (TUNA). At graduation in 1984, he received his Iron Ring presented to graduating engineers.
In 1988, Cyrus obtained his doctorate from the same university. His thesis was ‘The Vehicle Scheduling Problem: Models, Complexity and Algorithms’.
Starting at Dalhousie as an Assistant Professor 37 years ago, he earned tenure in 1992 and was promoted to Associate Professor three years later. In addition to Department Head of Industrial Engineering, he was Associate Dean of Engineering (Undergraduate Studies and Associated Universities) and Acting Associate Vice-President of Academics.
Cyrus was instrumental in shaping the future of engineering education in Canada through his longstanding involvement with the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB).
As the member representing Atlantic Canada, he chaired and participated in 18 accreditation visits to institutions. He also represented the CEAB and Engineers Canada at the Canadian Engineering Education Association’s annual conferences and internationally at meetings of the International Engineering Alliance and on capacity-building initiatives in Costa Rica.
Complementing his academic work, Cyrus co-founded an industrial engineering consultancy firm in 1989 with close friend Dr. Harvi Millar who is a Professor of Operations Management at Saint Mary’s University Sobey School of Business.
They met at UWI in 1979.
“Pemberton stood for fairness and equity and, as a Black professor, he wanted to ensure that Black students succeeded,” said St. Lucian-born Millar who delivered the eulogy. “While our grief is profound, let us hold on to the wonderful memories he left behind. I hope his spirit and legacy will live on through all the lives he has touched. When an elder dies, a library burns to the ground. We will ensure that his legacy continues to live on.”
The celebration of Cyrus’ life was sprinkled with humorous moments.
Sharing that they learnt about Lotto/649 time and its $1 million jackpot at the time soon after arriving in Nova Scotia to study, Millar said Cyrus conceived the idea to write an algorithm to beat the jackpot, thinking they could get rich quickly and return to the Caribbean.
“We created a database with three years of winning numbers, produced a probability distribution that was biased towards the numbers that didn’t show up yet and a random number generation using the probability distribution,” said the Visiting Professor & Scholar at Strathmore University in Kenya. “We bought Lotto tickets weekly, winning just $20. After a year, we stopped playing.”
Millar is the godfather of Cyrus’ daughters, Shanni and Akili, who are engineers.
Shanni is a Road Safety Engineer at the Nova Scotia Department of Transportation & Infrastructure Renewal while Akili is a Graduate Research Assistant at Concordia Turbulence Research Lab in Montreal.
In preparing for her father’s funeral, Shanni said she had many questions and often thought about calling him.
“He had all the answers and he was always there when I needed him,” she tearfully said. “He was my biggest supporter. He never saw any limitations for me.”
When trying to choose an overseas university to pursue undergraduate and graduate studies, Cyrus’ younger brother, Dr. Sheridan Cyrus, suggested he join him at Dalhousie.
“He said they had an outstanding dental school,” recalled Sheridan Cyrus who was a high school biology teacher in Grenada. “As I did my research, I discovered that the only dental schools in Canada accepting international students then were Dal and McGill which had a French requirement for students. The other thing my brother mentioned is that if we stayed together, we could share some costs. That seemed attractive and I joined him in August 1983.”
At the funeral, he recalled their childhood days, including some of the adventures they embarked on.
“I remember when the first human walked on the moon in 1969, we bought telescopes and went out that night looking to the sky to see if we could see him,” recounted Sheridan Cyrus who arrived in Toronto in 1989 to practice dentistry. “Pemberton said that engineers make things and industrial engineers make things better. What you experienced here was the better version of his life. He loved building models and Legos and reading science fiction books.”
Outside academics, Cyrus enjoyed playing chess and was an accomplished photographer and artist.
He created abstract pieces and a mural for his high school, drew cartoons for publications and was hired to write calligraphy on signs and for the name of the local newspaper in Grenada.
Though Canada was home, Cyrus maintained close ties with his birth country.
He created the Grenada Port Authority (GPA) Information System software, which has powered the island’s ports for the last three decades.
GPA Port Manager Ian Evans attended the funeral.
While in Grenada earlier this year to lead the deployment of an updated release of the software, Cyrus took his daughters on an island tour, that included visits to his high school and favourite beach – Grand Anse.
In addition to his daughters, Cyrus is survived by his wife of 32 years, Grace Bowen-Cyrus.
