Wilfrid Laurier University mourns the passing of longtime instructor Ernest ‘Ernie’ Cosgrove

May 8, 2025

Wilfrid Laurier University mourns the passing of Ernest “Ernie” Cosgrove, who served as an instructor in the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics for 43 years, from 1982 to 2025.

Ernie passed away on Saturday, May 3, 2025. He was 79 years old.

Over the years, Ernie developed and taught courses in personal financial planning, investments, corporate finance and liquidity analysis. A Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) holder since 1996, Ernie served as a member of the curriculum review committee and online learning initiative for the CFA Institute for the past 15 years.

Ernie was also a Chartered Financial Planner and held a Certificate in Investment Performance Measurement. A true believer in lifelong learning, Ernie recently enrolled himself in the Certified Employee Benefits Specialist Program.

Ernie is remembered for his generous service to Laurier. In addition to his long commitment to teaching courses, he developed and presented courses on financial planning for retirement for many years for the Laurier Association for Lifelong Learning.

Instructor Michelle Lennox met Ernie in her first Finance class when she was a master’s student. Today, she credits her teaching career to Ernie.

“I still remember after one class he gave me a capital asset pricing model proof to solve,” says Lennox. “I got it right in a few minutes and after that he encouraged me to pursue a career in finance and the CFA designation. Ernie helped me get a scholarship to write CFA Level 1 in 2001 and suggested I apply to teach BU383, now BU283, for the winter 2001 term.”

Prior to joining Laurier, Ernie earned B.Sc. degrees in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Montreal and an MBA from McMaster University. As a chemist, he worked at Ayerst Laboratories in Montreal during the late 1960s and at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters in Burlington during the 1970s.

As expressions of sympathy, donations to CNIB would be appreciated by Ernie’s family.

Read Ernie’s memorial notice and share memories on the Henry Walser Funeral Home website.