Roland Caldwell Harris (May 1875 - 3 September 1945) was the Commissioner of Public Works for Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

 from 1912 until his death in 1945. Under his leadership, Toronto saw built the Prince Edward Viaduct

Prince Edward Viaduct

The Prince Edward Viaduct System, commonly referred to as the Bloor Viaduct or the viaduct, is the name of a truss arch bridge system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that connects Bloor Street East, on the west side of the system, with Danforth Avenue on the east...

 and the R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant, which was named after him. Harris served in this position in Toronto longer than any other individual.

Harris’ first job was as an office boy at Toronto City Hall. He left that job to enter Jarvis Collegiate Institute

Jarvis Collegiate Institute

Jarvis Collegiate Institute is a high school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Jarvis is located on Jarvis Street. Founded in 1807 it is the second oldest high school in Ontario after the Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute, and the oldest high school in Toronto.-History:Jarvis Collegiate was...

. After graduating from Jarvis he obtained a position at the Toronto World newspaper as a copy boy. Harris then went on to become a reporter at the Toronto News.

In 1899, he returned to city hall as a civil servant. Harris was then promoted to property commissioner in 1905. His next job was commissioner of street cleaning in 1910. After the position of Commissioner of Works and City Engineer was created by Toronto City Council in 1912, he was the first person appointed to the post. During a Toronto Street Railway strike he was appointed, in 1912, by the Municipal Board
to manage the railway.

Unusual for a civil servant, Harris was well-known and even admired by the media. In an undated 1922 article, a reporter wrote:

His subject was know your city and it soon became apparent that the one thing worth knowing in Toronto is the works department. The thought of the destruction of cities made Mr. Harris realize to the full just what goes into the making of a city, the exact number of barrels of tar and asphalt for the streets, the miles of pipes for the sewers, the millions of laths and nails and bricks. Mr. Harris so loves Toronto that if he had time he would gladly count every brick in Toronto, and not only count them but kiss them..

Engineering was Harris’ passion although he had no formal education in that field. He used his knowledge on a number of important city projects including the filtration plant and the viaduct.
The viaduct was finished in 1919 and the filtration plant was opened in 1941. Both the viaduct and the plant contained foresight, as the viaduct contained a lower deck capable of holding trains which weren't introduced until 48 years after its construction, and the filtration plant had embedded piping and extra rooms in anticipation of an expansion.

Harris is also featured (and misnamed as "Rowland") in the Michael Ondaatje

Michael Ondaatje

Philip Michael Ondaatje , OC, is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist and poet of Burgher origin. He is perhaps best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, which was adapted into an Academy-Award-winning film.-Life and work:...

 novel In the Skin of a Lion

In the Skin of a Lion

In the Skin of a Lion is a novel by Canadian/Sri Lankan writer Michael Ondaatje. It was first published in 1987 by McClelland and Stewart. The novel fictionalises the lives of the immigrants whose contributions to building Toronto in the early 1900s never became part of the city's official history...

, although the portrayal of him is fictitious.