Robert Legget

Robert Ferguson Legget
Born (1904-09-29)September 29, 1904
Liverpool, England
Died April 17, 1994(1994-04-17) (aged 89)
Ottawa, Ontario
Alma mater University of Liverpool
Occupation civil engineer
Awards Order of Canada

Robert Ferguson Legget, CC FRSC (September 29, 1904 – April 17, 1994) was a civil engineer, historian and non-fiction writer. He was internationally known for his contributions to engineering, geology and building research and standardization. He is credited with the establishment of co-operation among Canadian geotechnical engineers, geologists and pedologists.

Legget was born in Liverpool, England of Scottish parents. He obtained a BEng (Hons) 1925, MEng 1927, and D.Eng. (honorary) 1971 from the University of Liverpool.

Legget died in Ottawa at the age of 89.

Career

He worked for 11 years as a civil engineer in the construction industry in England and subsequently in Canada. In 1936, he began teaching at Queen's University and the University of Toronto. He left teaching in 1947 to establish and serve as director of the National Research Council of Canada's new Division of Building Research. He held this position until he retired in 1969. Part of his legacy there was to establish a National Building Code that was respected throughout all of Canada, as opposed to the multitude of inconsistent local codes that were prevalent in 1947.

Around 1945, after World War II, Leggat shaped the Environmental Conservation movement in Ontario by spearheading the Guelph Conference, the Ganaraska Study and the Conservation Authorities Act of Ontario (1946). He also was a founder, in 1962, of the Canadian Permafrost Conferences.

He was the founding President of the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

Between 1959 and 1960, Legget was the Chairman of the Engineering Geology Division of the Geological Society of America.

After he retired, Dr. Legget wrote many books on the history of transportation in Canada including Ottawa Waterway: Gateway to A Continent, Rideau Waterway, Canals of Canada, The Seaway, and others, and he was a contributor to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.

Philanthropy

The Legget Endowment Fund is used by the Conservation Foundation on an annual basis for otherwise-unfunded current needs in the Rideau Valley.

Publications

Honours, awards and legacy

References

  1. ↑ concordia.ca: "Honorary degree citation – Robert Ferguson Legget* By: J. Bordan, June 1972"
  2. ↑ archivescanada.ca: "CAIN No. 264059 TITLE: Robert F. Legget fonds – textual record, graphic material, object
  3. ↑ cgs.ca: "LEGGET, Robert F. – MG 31, J 44 Finding Aid No. 1929 / Instrument de recherche no 1929"
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