Charles Eaves

Charles Eaves (1908–2006) was a Canadian scientist who extended the storage of apples by controlling levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide. He built the first controlled atmosphere (CA) storage in the Western Hemisphere in 1939 at Port Williams in Nova Scotia. After World War II his research at the Kentville Experimental Farm established storage methods that were adopted worldwide. He later advanced fruit storage in Turkey and Brazil for the United Nations and in 2000 was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Nova Scotia Agricultural College and Dalhousie University.

Charles Eaves was born in Liverpool, England on February 21, 1908. His mother, Amy Elizabeth (née Potts), died at his birth. His father, Frank Albert Eaves, a marine engineer specializing in propeller design, died following a workplace injury shortly thereafter. Eaves' guardians placed the sickly 2 year old in the country with the family of a gentle basket weaver. During the First World War, at age 8, he was sent to boarding school - a move he found difficult. However, there he discovered a fondness for music, poetry and theatre – and roles in school plays made classes bearable. Eaves graduated from school at age 14, but unable to find work his guardians insisted he go 'on the dole'. This instilled a lifelong empathy for others in need. Later, as a junior shipping clerk, he entered a Canadian Pacific Steamship office where a striking poster beckoned "Public School Boys Wanted – to learn farming in Canada". In March 1926, after a rough Atlantic crossing, 18-year-old Eaves entered Macdonald College of McGill University, where he fell in love with Canadian optimism. He learned numerous farming methods and completed the 2 year diploma course in 1928. To earn money to continue his college education, Eaves joined the last major harvest excursion to Western Canada. There he witnessed one of the first, labour-saving, combine harvesters in action.

Eaves completed his BSc. in agricultural science at McGill University in 1932 with summer employment at the Ottawa Experimental Farm. In 1933 the IODE awarded him a one-year scholarship to study plant nutrition and produce storage at Cambridge University in England. Upon his return to Canada he reunited with Margot Vernon Smith from Ottawa and they married in 1934. Accepting a temporary position at the Experimental Farm in Kentville, Eaves was made responsible for produce storage. After earning his MSc from McGill in 1937, he returned to work full-time at the Experimental Farm in Kentville.

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