University of Manitoba Engineering School named after Gerry and Barb Price
March 12, 2020 | By HPAC Magazine
Winnipeg-based Price Industries a leader in air distribution equipment and noise control products for the commercial HVAC industry.
Gerry and Barb Price (source: University of Manitoba)
The Faculty of Engineering at the University of Manitoba has a new name following a recent $20 million donation from Gerry and Barb Price. Going forward, in recognition of their generosity, the Faculty of Engineering will be named the Price Faculty of Engineering.
Born in Winnipeg, Gerry Price is Chairman and CEO of Winnipeg-based Price Industries a leader in air distribution equipment and noise control products for the commercial HVAC industry. The company was founded in 1946 as a sales company by Gerry’s father Ernest H. Price. The company began as a manufacturer’s agent for Hart & Cooley, Farr, and Maid-o-Mist, as well as its own line of fill and vent caps for oil furnaces.
Price Industries expanded over the following decades, and in 1977 Gerry Price joined the firm and gained total control of the company in 1987. He holds Bachelor of Science (1970) and Master of Science (1972) degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Manitoba, as well as a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.
Price has grown the company from 250 employees to more than 3,500 employees with 19 sales offices and 13 manufacturing sites across North America.
The Price family and Price Industries have supported the University of Manitoba for years, and the most recent donation from Barb and Gerry will create seven endowed faculty member positions over 10 years, enhancing the capacity of the school’s undergraduate engineering program.
A previous gift of $1.25 million to the U of M Front and Centre campaign in 2016 expanded the facilities in the Price Faculty of Engineering and created the Price Engineering Innovation and Prototype Centre, a recently opened space for engineering design teams to work on prototypes and design challenges. Their donation also provides bursaries for Indigenous students in the Engineering Access Program, a program designed to provide Indigenous students with greater access to university studies leading to a Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering at U of M.
They also established the Price Scholarships in Engineering for undergraduate students in 2018 with a gift of $1 million. The Price Graduate Scholarships for Women in Engineering were established through a $600,000 gift from the Price family and Price Industries. Every year for the next five years, 10 female engineering graduate students will receive $12,000 each to support their studies and further their research in the field of engineering.
