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The Order of Canada was established in 1967 as Canada's highest civilian honour and since then it has been presented to more than five thousand people, 57 of them this year. This recognition credits the importance of geological practice in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada. Bruce discovered geology as a student at Acadia University in Nova Scotia which he attended following his wartime service in the Canadian Army. During these years, he had the good fortune to be hired for summer field work by the Geological Survey of Canada. Upon graduation in 1949, he was invited to join the GSC, first on a temporary project, and then permanently. He spent his entire career with the agency, or on loan to various organizations for special studies. Two such secondments included the Atlantic Geoscience Centre which he established within the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia for the purpose of mapping Canada's Atlantic continental shelf to encourage oil and gas exploration; and Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd to head up a study of subsurface salt deposits with a view to storing nuclear waste. Later this mandate was extended to investigating deep storage within Precambrian rocks of the Canadian Shield, particularly in Ontario and Manitoba. Of particular importance to Ontario's petroleum industry was his earliest mandate to study and map the Paleozoic rocks of southwestern Ontario. This was originally undertaken at the Geologic Survey to the benefit of oil and gas exploration, and later to investigate those aforementioned salt deposits. During this period, Bruce was a true field geologist, spending his summers outdoors, and his winters inside, drawing maps and cross sections. The maps were all hand plotted and contoured, allowing the geologist plenty of time for subtle creative thinking as well as encouraging the development of broad theories. And Bruce's thoughts and theories on the geology of southwestern Ontario and elsewhere were prodigious, resulting in a hundred and thirty publications, many of them classic studies. These were published in many forms - peer reviewed journals, GSC volumes, a GAC Field Trip Guide Book, and chapters in major books - The Geology and Economic Minerals of Canada (1970), Decade of North American Geology (1993), and Geology of Ontario (1991) - all of which are still well-thumbed by practicing geologists today. After 40 years, Bruce retired in 1989, but this did not impede his geological activities. He continued doing what he did best and carried on with personal field research into the Potsdam sandstones of Eastern North America. This resulted in a thesis for which he received a PhD from the University of Ottawa in 2007 during his 80th year. The work will be published as a GSC Bulletin in the very near future. Bruce has received other awards, most notably the Award of Merit from the Ontario Petroleum Institute in 1978; the R.J.W. Douglas Medal in 1988 awarded by the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists for "outstanding contributions to the understanding of sedimentary geology in Canada"; and an AAPG Award for the Best Paper at the Eastern Section in 1990. He attributes much of the success of his career to a team effort with his colleagues at the GSC and AECL - "They were first class scientists". He is continuing his academic connection as a voluntary mentor to students at the University of Ottawa, sharing with them his 60 years of accumulated geological experience and insight. The students are fortunate, for Bruce Sanford's career is a worthy example for students and professionals alike to emulate. Further information can be found at: |
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Copyright 2010, Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario (APGO) |
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