This week, I read with considerable sadness of the passing of an old friend and mentor, Tony Lea. As many will know, Tony was an integral part of the success of Environics Analytics in Toronto over the past two decades.
I first met Tony some forty years ago when I began my graduate studies in geography at the University of Toronto and took his course “Matrix methods in geography”. In typical Tony fashion, the course occupied a completely unreasonable share of my time, as he was if nothing else, utterly thorough and expected the same of his students. Indeed, his main criticism of me as a scholar was my lack of enthusiasm about exhaustive exploration of a problem, including my failure to read through his relatively lengthy fourteen-hundred page doctoral thesis.
When Tony left the university for a small company called Compusearch, I became aware for the first time that there were commercial ramifications to our scholarly pursuits in spatial modeling and computation. What started as the occasional consulting project evolved over time to a decision point, and I chose Compusearch – or more precisely, Tony – over the tenure stream appointment that was offered to me. Tony and I made a good team, combining his thoroughness and professorial demeanor with my practical and result-driven orientation. For several years before he left for an adventure in health care data in Dallas, we worked on projects covering everything spatial: retail network and transportation models, target marketing, and even the placement of FM and television broadcast locations to optimize population coverage.
Our time working together was relatively short and over the years Tony and I crossed paths only occasionally, but as with many old friends, it always seemed like no time had passed. I remember his kindness, his subtle sense of humor, and above all, his intellect and endless pursuit of knowledge.
Rest in peace, my friend. You will be missed by your family, friends, and colleagues around the world.
Tony’s full obituary can be found here: Anthony LEA Obituary (2022) – Toronto, ON – The Globe and Mail (legacy.com)
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