Business executive.
Born at Winnipeg on 30 September 1918, son of Frederick Maxwell Burbidge and Susan Mary Stewart, he was educated at Grosvenor School, St. Johns Ravenscourt School, and the University of Manitoba (BA, 1939). He studied in the Manitoba Law School from 1939 until June 1941, when he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy and served overseas during the Second World War. He received his military discharge in September 1945 then completed his legal training in the spring of 1947.
He joined the legal department of the Canadian Pacific Railway and was transferred to its Montreal office in 1950, then was transferred to the marketing department in 1960, and was for a time the executive assistant to Chair N. R. “Buck” Crump. He became Senior Executive Officer (1971), President (1972), and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (1981, succeeding Ian D. Sinclair), serving in the latter position until retirement in 1986. On 27 April 1942, he married Cynthia Adams Bennest (1920-2013), daughter of Edwin Henry Bennest, and they had three sons, ? Burbidge (1946-1946), John Burbidge, and George Frederick Burbidge (1950-2022).
He died at Knowlton, Quebec on 3 May 2013.
Obituary, Globe and Mail, 7 May 2013.
Obituary, Globe and Mail, 17 September 2022.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
We thank James Arnett and John Burbidge for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 21 February 2023
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