dec07

The Sudbury area’s status as a mining supply powerhouse wasn’t always as obvious as it is today. In the late ’70s, when nickel prices hit rock bottom and the city was pummeled by a succession of layoffs and strikes, doom and gloom predominated. Reporters... More

The Sudbury area’s status as a mining supply powerhouse wasn’t always as obvious as it is today. In the late ’70s, when nickel prices hit rock bottom and the city was pummeled by a succession of layoffs and strikes, doom and gloom predominated. Reporters standing in front of boarded up downtown storefronts appeared on national news broadcasts to chronicle the city’s demise and Sudbury’s youth hit the road at the earliest opportunity in search of greener pastures. However, adversity can also be a powerful stimulus to action. Darryl Lake, president and CEO of the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT), was one of many Sudburians in the late’70s who heeded the call of a community newspaper publisher’s front page editorial with the supersized headline, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going. ” Lake moved to Sudbury in 1968, began teaching Chemistry at Cambrian College and went on to serve as dean of technology. Life was good, but Sudbury’s bleak economic prospects c Less