Remembering Kish and Helena Hahn

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Members of the Department of Systems Design Engineering (SYDE) and the Faculty of Science gathered with the Hahn family on October 5, 2022 to celebrate the lives of Kish and Helena Hahn.

Professor Kish Hahn spent 38 years at Waterloo and was a formative faculty member to the SYDE department. His tremendous impact on the department as a professor, researcher, and admissions director, is remembered by many SYDE alumni who were given the chance to study engineering because Professor Hahn saw potential in them. He passed away in 2022 at the age of 90.

Helena Hahn spent most of her career working in the Faculty of Science at Waterloo and served as President of the University of Waterloo Staff Association (UWSA) for 11 years. She passed away in 2016 at the age of 81.

Kish and Helena’s daughter Francoise (Fran) Olmstead attended the event with her partner Tim and children Samantha and Justin. The family unveiled a memorial tree planted in the Peter Russell Rock Garden, a place where Kish and Helena often met during their lunch hour.

Professor Kish Hahn Memorial Award

To honour the legacy of Professor Hahn, SYDE of proud to announce the establishment of a memorial award for students who show exceptional promise for Systems Design. A fellow classmate has generously agreed to match all donations dollar for dollar, up to $100,000 CAD.

We hope you will join us in celebrating and honoring Kish’s life and dedicating to his students by supporting the Professor Kish Hahn Memorial Award and the next generation of Systems Design Engineers at Waterloo.