Maurice William Summerhayes died on 10th April, 1943, in Duncan, British Columbia, at the age of 81.
He was born in England and educated at Wellingborough Grammar School, and received his technical training privately from Mr. H. Vincent Wallace, A.R.S.M., of California. In 1898 he took charge of a placer mine on the Kern River, working there until 1900. From 1901 to 1903 he was employed by Veta Grande Mining Co., and was in charge of the Huntingdon mill plant, cyaniding and assaying departments of La Chuchilla mine in Sonora, Mexico. He joined Rotulo, Ltd., of London in 1904 as cyanide man at Descoberto mine, Minas Geraes, Brazil, and in July of that year was made general manager. He was in the Caucasus in 1907, and in 1908 returned to the U.S.A. to enter the firm of Wallace and Summerhayes, mining engineers and consultants, at Nogales, Arizona.
Mr. Summerhayes went to Canada in 1911, and from 1912 to 1918 was manager of the Porcupine Crown mine, Timmins. He spent the following three years as manager of Bluestone Mining and Smelting Co., at Mason, Nevada, and then practised for a number of years as consultant with headquarters in Toronto. He was appointed general manager of Wright-Hargreaves Mines, Ltd., at Kirkland Lake in 1928, and was made a director in 1935 and managing director in 1937. He retired from active management in 1949, but continued in a consulting capacity until his death.
Mr. Summerhayes was elected to Associate Membership of the Institution in 1906. He was a member of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, and was a former president of the Ontario Mining Association.
Vol. 62, Trans I.M.M., 1952-53, p.528
