Geotechnical News• December 2019
25
From the CGS Board
Fred Matich and John Gadsby:
CGS’s newest Honorary Life Members
At the 72
nd
CGS Canadian Geotechni-
cal Conference in St John’s, NL, this
past fall, CGS President,
Mario Ruel
presented two Honorary Life Member-
ships to long-time CGS members
Fred
Matich
and
John Gadsby
. They are
the recipients of the second and third
such memberships of the Society; the
first one being presented to Gordon
McRostie in 2015.
Fred Matich
, a New Zealander by
birth, came to Canada in 1953 after
obtaining a Master’s degree in Civil
Engineering from Harvard University
under the joint supervision of Pro-
fessors Arthur Casagrande and Karl
Terzaghi. He joined the Soils Engi-
neering Department of The Founda-
tion Company of Canada in Montreal.
In 1954, that department became a
consulting firm known as Geocon Ltd.
By the mid-1960s, Fred was Presi-
dent of that firm, which by then had
expanded to four offices across Can-
ada. In 1961, he moved to Toronto.
In 1975, Geocon was purchased by
Lavalin Inc., with whom Fred worked
until 1990, the last five years as a
Senior Geotechnical Advisor. In 1990,
he formed MAJM Corporation Ltd.,
and for the past 29 years, Fred has pri-
marily served on a number of geotech-
nical review boards including Barrick
Gold, Inco/Vale Canada and Syncrude
Canada. He has been associated with
Barrick since 1988, Inco/Vale since
1956 and with Syncrude since 1962.
Fred has applied his geotechnical
expertise in more than 40 countries,
primarily associated with resource
development projects.
Fred has been a member of the CGS
since its inception in 1972. Prior to
that, he was a member of the local
soil mechanics groups in Montreal
and Toronto. Over the years Fred has
attended many of the CGS annual con-
ferences, and presented many papers.
He served as Chair of the CGS’s First
Marine Geotechnical Conference, and
has been for many years a member of
the CGS Heritage Committee. Fred
was a Cross Canada Lecturer in 1975
and was the recipient of the R.F.
Legget Award (as it was known then)
in 1986. Fred received The Asso-
ciation of Professional Engineers of
Ontario Engineering Medal in 1978.
He became a Fellow of the Canadian
Academy of Engineering in 1990.
Fred became a Fellow of the Engineer-
ing Institute of Canada in 1992 and
has subsequently been awarded two
EIC Medals: the K.Y. Lo Medal in
2000 and the Julian Smith Medal in
2012.
John Gadsby
worked as a Soils
Engineer in the UK during the 1950s
before attending Purdue University
in the early 1960s where he obtained
a Master’s degree in Civil Engineer-
ing under the supervision of Professor
Ralph Peck. He then moved to Van-
couver, BC, in the early 1960s, and
over the next 20 years worked with
Geocon, CBA Engineering, Piteau
Gadsby McLeod and Thurber Engi-
neering, opening that firm’s Vancouver
office. When at Geocon, Fred Matich
was John’s boss.
Since 1983, John has worked as an
independent geotechnical consultant,
mainly in the mining industry. He
pioneered the concept of “Design
and Operation for Mine Closure”, a
concept that has now been adopted by
many countries around the world. He
has travelled and lectured extensively
on that concept.
John has been a CGS member since
its inception in 1972. He was the first
CGS British Columbia Director, and
was on the committee that produced
the first draft, in 1975, of what is now
the
Canadian Foundation Engineer-
ing Manual
. He has been involved
with the
CGS News
since 1979, and in
1983 became the founder and pub-
lisher of
Geotechnical News. Geo-
technical News
will publish the last
of its almost 150 issues in December
2019. John became an Engineering
Institute of Canada Fellow in 1997
and was awarded the EIC’s CP Rail
Medal in 2000. In the same year he
was awarded the CGS’s A.G. Stermac
Award.
Fred Matich.
John Gadsby.
