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My Background

I thought you'd never ask!

Me and Uncle Bruce_edited.jpg

Bruce Smith

I was raised in a middle class family with 5 sisters and 1 brother. My dad joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) shortly after I was born and consequently, every 2 or 3 years our family would be moved to a different air force base, usually located near small towns across Canada. At various times we lived in Ontario; Quebec; Yukon; Manitoba and Alberta. A great way for our family to see what a beautiful and diverse country we live in.

After graduating from Grade 12 in Cold Lake, Alberta, I received a scholarship to attend the Royal Military College (RMC) in Kingston, Ontario.  I graduated from RMC in 1967 with a degree in Civil Engineering, and was posted to an RCAF construction unit in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where I met the beautiful nurse who became my wife.

The construction unit in Winnipeg specialized in constructing a variety of military installations in the Canadian Arctic and I soon found myself working in a remote area near Cambridge Bay on Victoria Island where, as illustrated here, I received the first of many lessons about the Arctic and, on this particular assignment, the perils of moving heavy equipment over the tundra during the summer months.  

What do we do now boss?

My experiences that summer in Cambridge Bay sparked a lifelong fascination with the Arctic. After three years in the air force, I decided to go to the University of Alberta in Edmonton, which at that time, was one of the few places in Canada that was conducting research into the properties of permafrost. In 1972 I graduated with a Master of Science degree in soil and rock mechanics, with a specialty in the behaviour of permafrost.

A large earthworks water reservoir near Fort Good Hope, NT.

​After graduation I worked as a consultant with small engineering companies on projects located primarily in western and northern Canada. These projects involved the design and construction of roads, runways, pipelines, water reservoirs and building foundations. On all these projects I was fortunate to work with teams of experienced and talented engineers, many of whom had immigrated to Canada from countries all around the world.

 

After more than 40 interesting and challenging years as a consulting engineer, I decided to retire in 2015.

A bridge over the Athabasca River near Fort Mackay, AB

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