William Gerald Lorne Cousins (Gerry) was born in Belleville Ontario on May 4, 1935 to parents John Michael Cousins (Jack) and Florence Kathleen Cousins (Kay). He grew up in Belleville, excepting a four year period during World War II when his father was overseas. During the war when his mother was working at a war job, he lived with his maternal grandparents, William and May Lang in Peterborough, Ontario. He graduated from Belleville Collegiate in 1953 and enrolled in Forestry at the University of Toronto.
He graduated from the University of Toronto as a Chemical Engineer in 1958. His first employer was the newly-formed Ontario Water Resources Commission in the Industrial Waste Division. He received an M.S. Degree in Environmental Engineering while on leave from work in 1960. His second employer was Permutit Company where he was a sales engineer and designer of water treatment systems.
He then joined a breakaway group from his former company to form International Hydronics Corp. of Princeton, New Jersey, where he was actively operating a hazardous waste treatment plant in Chicago for a subsidiary of Hyon Waste Management Inc. He subsequently moved to Greenville, SC where he was a Vice President of Piedmont Engineers from 1974 -1984. He then joined the Fluor Daniel Corp in Greenville from which he retired in 1999.
He was preceded in death by his wife of 62 years, Betty Caroline (nee Rose) also originally from Belleville Ontario, and three children and their spouses: Kimberley Cousins and Alan Oshiro of Redlands, CA; Donna and Bryon Blankenbecler of Marietta, GA; Christopher and Cara Cousins, of Columbia, SC; as well as five grandchildren: Michael and Daniel Oshiro, and Drew, Katie and Adam Blankenbecler.
