ST. LAURENT, Arthur T. , b. 1859, Rimouski, Que; d. 6 March 1923, Ottawa. Graduating from Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique (1885), he first worked on the Temiscouata Railway (1887), and, in 1888, joined the Department of Public Works of Canada, becoming assistant resident engineer at Winnipeg in 1890. He surveyed and designed bridges and dams, including the lock and dam at St. Andrews on the Red River (1895), and the Laurier Avenue Bridge, Ottawa (1902). His greatest engineering achievement was the construction of a controversial bridge over the Saskatchewan River at Edmonton in 1900. Built to withstand the pressure of ice, it was the first bridge in Western Canada to be built with concrete. In 1908, he was appointed assistant deputy minister, and was promoted to chief engineer in January 1922. From 1915 to 1917, he served as vice president of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers (renamed Engineering Institute of Canada, 1918), becoming president in 1923. He was also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. A Roman Catholic, he was married and had two daughters and two sons, who became engineers.

Melissa Couto