William Teron

William (Bill) Teron, OC (November 15, 1932 – March 12, 2018[1]) was a Canadian real estate executive who was known as the "Father of Kanata".[2]

Born in Gardenton, Manitoba, he moved to Ottawa when he was eighteen. He started his own company, Golden Ridge Developments Ltd. He is responsible for two suburban developments in the Ottawa area - the development of the former hamlet of Bells Corners, Ontario into a garden suburb (through the development of housing estates called Lynwood Park and Arbeatha Park in the early 1960s) - and the development of Beaverbrook, the beginning of the city of Kanata (later amalgamated into greater Ottawa) from a greenfield site in the Township of March, west of the Ottawa Greenbelt.

From 1973 to 1979, he was the Chairman and President of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).[3] In 1976, Teron served as Deputy Minister of the Ministry of State for Urban Affairs.[3] He is the founder of Teron International Building Technologies.

In 1982, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 1978, he was made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. He is also the recipient of the Silver, Gold and Diamond Queen's Jubilees medals and received the Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.[3]

In 2014, Teron listed his home located in the Kanata Rockeries enclave off Goulbourn Forced Road for $2.75 million. The 5,600 square foot home is located on three-quarters of an acre and is part of the 13-acre parcel Teron kept for himself when he gave up developing his garden city of Beaverbrook in the early 1970s. The home was built in 2004 and was used as a test site to research new technology aimed at improving sustainability.[4] The home is built on a private cul-de-sac. It resembles a series of silos in mirrored glass that feature green roofs, rainwater harvesting and a building block-type technology. The south side of the home is almost all glass, angled to reflect the sun's rays in the summer, but collect them in the winter. The north side is virtually buried in a hillside to insulate and allow nature to effectively obscure the home from public view.[4]

Teron died on March 12, 2018 at the age of 85.[5]