7677

 

7677 Robert W MacLeod

 

 1969 Review

      






 

 Forts LaSalle & Haldiman, RMC BEng (Chemical/Nuclear), CELE (1# RCR, CFS Leitrim), DPA Carleton, Second Class Power Engineering - Alberta, General Management (American Management Association).

 Married Peggy Drader August 1969 in Medicine Hat, AB. The wedding party included Ron Aitken & Rick Wright. Our first daughter Trenna and son Colin were both born in Deep River, ON. Our second daughter Alison was born in Medicine Hat AB.

 Peggy is a KGH RN grad from 1968 and completed her BScN & MN (Nursing) at U of S. Trenna completed a BSc-Forestry at UBC, now working and living in Princeton, BC. Colin is a U of S BSc Civil Engineer & U of A MSc-Project Management and resides in Calgary. Alison graduated from U of S twice - BSc Civil & MSc Structural Engineering and resides in Rossland BC.

1967 (June-December): London ON with #1 RCR both as contact trainee & Signals Officer. January 1970: Clinton ON for the first part of the post-commission course for CELE officers. February - May 1970: Kingston ON for the last part of the course.

 June 1970 - June 1972: CFS Leitrim as Assistant Ops Officer then as Admin Officer once promoted.

 June 1972 joined AECL - Chalk River to operate the NRX Reactor where I was welcomed by Carl Dorn (‘68) & Wayne Pettipas (‘68). Moved to the Experimental Loops Branch in 1972, assisting various scientists with their work. Spring 1974 transferred to AECL - Power Projects in Mississauga to prepare commissioning & operating documentation for the planned 600 MWe Candu in Argentina. There I had another rare opportunity to work with Ken Malyon & Tom Beaman. Then there was the overthrow of the Argentine President, and the project was stalled for several years.

 January 1979 joined Western Cooperative Fertilizers as a process engineer including preparation of the bid specifications for a 1200 MT sulphuric acid plant. Economic times changed for the fertilizer industry and after the plant was shut, I was able to move next door to the Alberta Gas Chemicals (now Methanex) plant as Assistant Operations Manager.

 In June 1986 corporate reorganization as well as federal economic policy affected plant operations. I was fortunate to be able to move to the chlor-alkali industry in Saskatoon SK as Production Manager for Saskatoon Chemicals Ltd. There, Dave Health’s ‘Twig’ became a social hit with many ex-Cadets.

 As corporate ownership changed, so did the chlor-alkali plant to names such as Weyerhaeuser, Sterling Pulp Chemicals & finally ERCO Worldwide. With a base in Saskatoon, my roles changed as well to Plant Manager-North Vancouver, Plant Manager-Grande Prairie & Business Manager West for services and products related to sodium hydroxide, chlorine, hydrochloric acid, sodium chlorate, calcium hypochlorite and chlorine dioxide generation.  Further role changes included servicing customers along the west coast of Canada & the USA, BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and northern Ontario. Labour relations were also a challenge at times, but successful for all parties both in Saskatoon and North Vancouver.

 I retired from ERCO in June 2010, followed by Peggy from U of S in Summer 2012. While throughout my time in Saskatoon as well as retirement in Cochrane, I have enjoyed service with Rotary International in both locations when not trying to keep up with our 4 grandchildren in Calgary & Princeton BC. Cochrane commitments have included president of my 86-unit condo board for the past 12 years as well as director of the Bow Rivers Edge Campground – a highly successful jointly owned venture of the Lions and Rotary clubs.

 Now to continue travelling……….



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