Born circa 1935. A retired engineer. Spent his career working for the multinational chemical company Union Carbide. Also a jazz trombonist, and is leader of the Jerry Heath Jazz Quintet. First became active with environmental issues in Surrey, British Columbia in the early 1970s, when then-mayor Bill Vander Zalm proposed construction of a shopping mall on a square kilometre of old-growth forest. Heath helped form the South Surrey Study Group, a citizens' coalition opposing the development. Following pressure, the development layout was changed such that the old-growth forest was preserved.