Ian William Tweddell

(1914.01.12 – 1975.06.09)
SLS, DLS, ALS
Commission #103
(1950.04.05)
Articled to G.C. Hamilton

Ian William Tweddell of Saskatoon died suddenly on June 9, 1975 while on vacation with his wife at Kootenay Lake, B. C.

Ian was born at Whickham, Co. Durham, England on January 12, 1917. He immigrated to Canada with his parents in 1921 and was raised near Lashburn. He received his high school education at Prince Albert Collegiate Institute and Lashburn High School.

During the war Ian served with the R.C.A.F. as an observer from April 1941 until his discharge as a Flight Lieutenant in August of 1945. He was shot down over Germany in May of 1943 and spent two years in a Prisoner of War camp in Germany.

After the war Ian returned to University and graduated with a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan in 1948.

During his undergraduate years he worked as a student assistant with a Dominion Topographical Survey party at Yellowknife and as a party chief on Northern Surveys for the Department of Natural Resources in Saskatchewan. In the summer of 1948 he was resident engineer in charge of construction in the Prince Albert National Park. In the winter of 1948-49 he was an instructor in the materials laboratory at the University of Saskatchewan.

In 1949 Ian joined the firm of Kent Phillips & Associates Ltd. in Saskatoon and was employed on the survey of the Interprovincial Pipeline. He also subdivided parts of the Pasqua and One Arrow Indian Reserves.

In 1950 Ian obtained his Saskatchewan Commission and his Dominion Commission in 1951. When the firm opened an office in Alberta as Phillips, Hamilton & Associates, Ian spent some time working out of the Edmonton office and obtained his Alberta Commission in 1952.

In 1957 Ian returned to the University as a lecturer in the Civil Engineering Department. He attended the University of Manitoba and received his Masters' degree in Planning and was made an Assistant Professor. In 1967 Ian became an Associate Professor and was made a full Professor shortly before his death.

Ian was married to the former Doris Helen Meville and they have four children: Linda Gail, Gordon Ralph, William Robert and Laurel Ann. He was survived by his wife, Doris, and their four children, his mother, Mrs. Margaret Tweddell, a brother, Colin, of Dundas Ontario and three granddaughters.

Professor Tweddell was President of the Saskatchewan Land Surveyors Association in 1968. He was a member of the Board of Examiners from 1955 to 1967 and Chairman of the Board from 1967 until the time of his death. He was a long time member of the Canadian Institute of Surveying and participated on panels at C.I.S. meetings.

For a number of years while his family was in their teens, Ian was active in the Boy Scouts at Bethel United Church in Saskatoon. Professor Tweddell's greatest interest had always been his professional field and in the individual problems of his students, and was always ready to devote unlimited time to his students.

Ian spent considerable time in the past six years assisting in the planning of the proposed new Engineering Building soon to be constructed on the Saskatoon Campus

(See also biography on Alberta Land Surveyors Association web site.)