Irene Spry

Irene Mary Spry (née Biss), OC, economic historian (born 28 August 1907 in Standerton, Transvaal, South Africa; died 16 December 1998 in Ottawa, ON). Irene Spry was professor emeritus of the department of economics at the University of Ottawa. She wrote extensively about the economic history of Canada and was involved in international women’s organizations.

Career and Research Highlights

Student of the "great transformation" in 19th-century Western Canada, and of natural resource economics, Irene Spry wrote books and articles and made valuable contributions to the maintenance of humane values in many communities. (See also History of Settlement in the Canadian Prairies; Natural Resources in Canada.) Her works on the Palliser Expedition (1857-60) and the reminiscences of Peter Erasmus are marked by an appreciation of the imperial context and the economic factors underlying Canadian history in this era.

Irene Spry was a member of the League for Social Reconstruction in the 1930s. She worked with Harold Innis while he was engaged in his studies of the cod fishery and pulp and paper. (See also History of Commercial Fisheries.) He encouraged her to examine the development of electric power in Canada. Spry represented the Federated Women's Institutes of Canada with the Associated Country Women of the World from 1954 to 1967, acting as executive chairman from 1959 to1965 and deputy president from 1968 to1974.

Select Publications

The Palliser Expedition: The Dramatic Story of Western Canadian Exploration, 1857-1860 (1963).
The Papers of the Palliser Expedition (1968).

Legacy

With her husband Graham Spry, who served as Saskatchewan's agent general in the United Kingdom and Europe for two decades, Irene Spry was an untiring supporter of Canada and of a social democratic approach to public policy.

Irene Spry was the subject of a 1996 documentary titled Wisdom and Wit: Irene Mary Spry.