Eric "Ric" David Soulis was a professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Born in Toronto in 1949 to George and Kathryn (nee Colwell) Soulis, he was raised in Kitchener where he attended Eastwood Collegiate Institute. After graduating from Waterloo with a BASc in civil engineering, he studied at Memorial University before spending ten years working in the industry. In 1988 he completed a PhD in civil engineering at Waterloo, where went on to teach and research with a focus on hydrology for the next 30 years. His father, George Soulis, He and Carol Amrell Moogk-Soulis were married for 46 years and together had two children, Neal and Graham.