G. Ross Douglas

 

G. Ross Douglas

1939 -

•1960        Joined CHS and assigned to CSS Acadia (spring) and CSS Baffin (Arctic trip)
•1961        CSS Baffin, Bay of Fundy and Arctic
•1962        Georgian Bay Survey
•1963        Polar Continental Shelf Project, Hell Gate & Cardigan Strait 
•
April 1963 (CHS org chart)- Central Region, Field Officer (as Technical Officer 2)
•1964        Polar Continental Shelf Project, HIC, Arctic Ocean and Hell Gate
•1965        Polar Continental Shelf Project, HIC, Arctic Ocean and Cardigan Strait
  1966 - Staff assignment, Central Region - On rotation from field work
•1966 - 1971        In Charge of the first Hydrographic Development Group at Bedford Institute
•1972 - 1978        Assistant Regional Hydrographer, Atlantis Region.  Educational leave from 1975 to 1978.
•1978 - 1987        Director, Hydrography, Central and Arctic Region
•1987 - 1994        Dominion Hydrographer

Ross Douglas grew up on a farm and received his elementary and secondary schooling in Gull Lake, Saskatchewan. Two summer seasons with the Department of Public Works on highway location surveys in Banff and Kootenay National Parks convinced Ross that surveying was the career for him. Ross was one of four members of the 1960 graduating class of the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (Surveying) who joined the Canadian Hydrographic Service in May 1960 (the other three were Neil Anderson, Earl Brown and Eldon Bruns).

In 1963 he joined the Polar Continental Shelf Project and from 1964 to 1966, he was hydrographer in Charge of the PCSP, conducting surveys of the Arctic Ocean and throughout the Arctic Islands where he produced the first computer/plotter generated depth plots. From 1966 to 1972, Ross was Head, Hydrographic Development in the Atlantic Region, CHS. During this time, he spent some time as Hydrographer-in-Charge of CSS Baffin and CSS Kapuskasing. In 1972 he became Assistant Regional Hydrographer, Atlantic, responsible for the  field survey section, consisting of 45 employees.

During 1975-78, Ross Douglas was on part-time educational leave. He worked on special assignments during the summer months. He received a Dalhousie University Scholarship and the G.V. Douglas Memorial Award for Geology in 1976. He graduated in 1978 with a B.Sc. (major in geology, minor in mathematics) from Dalhousie University.

In 1978, Ross was appointed Director, Hydrography, Central and Arctic Region in Burlington, Ontario.

In 1987, he was appointed Dominion Hydrographer and Director General of the Canadian Hydrographic Service. During his tenure as Dominion Hydrographer, the CHS underwent many changes in response to changing technologies and new political and economic realities. Ross stepped down as Dominion Hydrographer as of Dec. 30, 1994 and accepted a special assignment working with Scott Parsons, Assistant Deputy Minister. He was adjunct professor of survey science at the University of Toronto.

Ross has been active in the technological thrusts of the Canadian Hydrographic Service and pioneered a number of early developments in field data logging and processing systems. In 1981, he received a Commission as a Canada Lands Surveyor.
Ross was President of the Canadian Institute of Surveying and Mapping (now called the Canadian Institute of Geomatics) in 1990 and 1991.
From 1995 to 1997, he serves a two-year term as President of the Hydrographic Society.

Sources: The Canadian Surveyor, September 1978, p. 392
The Canadian Surveyor, December 1979, p. 392.
CISM Journal ACSGC, Summer 1988, p. 165.
CISM Journal ACSGC, Autumn 1990, p. 337.
Lighthouse, Fall 1994, p. 37.
Lighthouse, Spring 1995, p. 34.
Lighthouse, Fall 1995, p. 55.

 

 

This page was last updated on 30 September 2021

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