Educator, writer.
Born on the British island of Guernsey in 1925, son of Arthur Sanford Blicq (1895-1976) and Marjorie Edith Steele (?-1968), he was evacuated during the Second World War and immigrated to Canada with his family in 1940, settling in Winnipeg. He attended Kelvin High School until his 18th birthday then, in the closing days of the war, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and served as a navigator and wireless operator. After returning to civilian life, he re-enlisted in the Royal Air Force and served in Egypt, Singapore, and Australia from 1947 to 1952. In 1951, he married nurse Irene Winifred Stratford (?-1956) and they had two children.
On returning to Winnipeg in 1957, he worked as a technical editor with CAE Aviation for ten years, turning engineering reports and technical proposals into more easily read documents for Canadian and American military personnel. In 1967 he took a job at Red River College, teaching technical writing to students in engineering and science. His experiences were later distilled into the book Technically Write! that went through eight editions over a period of 40 years. He wrote five other textbooks. He retired in 1990 and began writing plays and novels, as well as several volumes of memoirs.
He died at Winnipeg on 28 May 2021.
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Thorson Cottage (Fourth Avenue, Gimli, RM of Gimli)
Obituary [Marjorie Edith Blicq], Winnipeg Free Press, 28 December 1968, page 26.
Obituary [Arthur Sandford Blicq], Winnipeg Free Press, 26 April 1976, page 17.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 5 June 2021.
“Navigator of skies, composition,” Winnipeg Free Press, 9 October 2021, page C1.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 9 October 2021
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