National Capital Chapter 70 - Ottawa, Canada

VE3LC Biography

VE3LC text

Education / Employment History

While attending Acadia University, Doc played tuba and did some conducting in the university band. Though he decided not to give up geology to conduct a Halifax brass band, he maintained an interest in music for the rest of his life.
In 1926 Doc graduated from Acadia University where he received a B Sc degree in Geology. That summer he took his first trip north to Baffin Island on a geological survey. There he developed “Arctic Fever” the intense desire to return to the north as often as he could.
In 1931 he graduated from Princeton University with a Ph D degree in Economic Geology and Mineralogy.
Later in 1931 Doc joined the Department of Mines (now Energy Mines & Resources) in Ottawa where he spent his entire career, often re-visiting his beloved Arctic.
Doc was a gifted landscape painter and particularly favoured Arctic landscapes as his subjects. He became friends with Group of Seven artist A. Y. Jackson, another landscape painter, and they often visited the North together. On one of those trips, Doc gave up smoking. On his return to Ottawa he decided to get back into playing music and bought a French Horn. This led to practising and playing with his daughter, another horn player, and eventually to support of the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra.
Doc retired in the mid-1960’s.

He joined QCWA in 1974 and was one of the twenty-one Charter Members of Chapter 70.

Doc passed away on December 23, 1988 at age 88 years.