Geotechnical News • September 2018
17
It is with great sadness that the Cana-
dian Geotechnical Society announces
the passing of two its long-serving
members: Gordon C. McRostie died
on June 9 at age 96 and Owen L.
White died on June 23, 2018 at age
92. Their technical obituaries, writ-
ten by colleagues Michel St-Louis,
and John Gartner and Doug VanDine,
respectively, are on the CGS website
at ‘Lives Lived’
virtual_archives_lives_lived.php
.
The following is a summary of their
professional contributions. Both these
gentlemen will be missed.
Gordon C. McRostie
(1922 - 2018)
Gordon McRostie w
as born in
Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec,
graduated from the University of
Toronto with a BSc in Civil Engineer-
ing in 1944 and moved to Ottawa in
1945. After gaining a few years of
practical experience, he opened his
own geotechnical engineering practice
in Ottawa in 1950, one of the first geo-
technical consulting firms in Canada.
In April 2006, Gordon merged his
company, McRostie, Genest, St-Louis
& Associates, with Golder Associates’
Ottawa office, where he continued to
contribute to the profession until very
recently.
In 1961, Gordon helped form the
Geotechnical Engineering Division of
the Engineering Institute of Canada,
which became the Canadian Geo-
technical Society (CGS) in 1972. In
1963, Gordon was one of 10 geotech-
nical professionals who financially
backed the first year of the
Canadian
Geotechnical Journal
. He helped
organize the 1st Civilian Soil Mechan-
ics Conference (the forerunner of the
CGS Annual Conference) in Ottawa in
1947, and was one of forty delegates
to attend that event. Gordon attended
68 of the 70 CGS annual conferences
in his lifetime, being on the organiz-
ing committees of a number of those
conferences, including the 70th CGS
Annual Conference held in Ottawa in
2017.
Gordon’s exceptional work has been
honored with a number of awards over
the years. In 1997, Gordon received
the R.F. Legget Award, the most senior
and prestigious award presented by the
Canadian Geotechnical Society. He
received the Canadian Pacific Railway
Award in 1995 from the Engineering
Institute of Canada in recognition of
his many years of service and leader-
ship. In 1996, Gordon, L. Morissette
and M.W. St-Louis were awarded
the Gzowski Medal by the Canadian
Society for Civil Engineering for best
paper on a civil engineering subject
in the area of surveying, structural
engineering and heavy construction.
The same three co-authors received
the CGS’s RM Quigley Award in 2002
for their outstanding contribution to
the
Canadian Geotechnical Journal.
In 2015, Gordon received the first
Honorary Life Membership from the
CGS for his life-long contribution and
dedication to the Society and to the
geotechnical profession in Canada.
Gordon had a long-standing career in
geotechnical engineering and will be
remembered fondly for his willingness
to share his knowledge. His profes-
sional life was amplified by a personal
life filled with adventure - from sky-
diving for his 90th birthday, climbing
to the base camp of Mount Everest
and to Machu Picchu, and being ship-
wrecked in Antarctica. He traveled the
world and made sure to live his life to
the fullest.
Gordon was a pioneer in geotechnical
engineering and above all a wonderful
human being. His insurmountable gen-
erosity and lively spirit was infectious,
and he was a great mentor to so many
of his colleagues.
Owen L. White
(1926 - 2018)
Owen White
was born in Melbourne,
Australia, and graduated with an
Associate Diploma of Secondary
Metallurgy from the Royal Melbourne
Institute of Technology in 1950. While
working in Melbourne, he studied part
time towards a BSc in geology, mining
and metallurgy at the University of
Melbourne, graduating in 1958. That
year, he moved to Canada to pursue
a Master’s degree in geology and
civil engineering at the University of
Toronto.
Gordon McRostie.
Owen White.
IN MEMORIAM
