Military officer, civil servant.
Born at Winnipeg on 4 December 1916 to Mary Bertha Ann Hodgson (1885-1961) and Ronald Victor Waitt (1877-1939), he attended Wolseley School, Isaac Brock School, and Gordon Bell High School. He graduated from the Walter Hinton School of Aeronautics in Illinois, and the Aeronautical Engineering School in Montreal. In 1934, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery and transferred to the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1936. He served in Canada and overseas in England, France, and in Africa; in the Gold Coast (Ghana), Egypt, and Libya. In 1945, he married Rita Eve Pelletier (1925-1993) and they went on to have four children. After the Second World War he remained with the RCAF where he rose to the rank of Wing Commander.
Upon leaving the Service in 1968, he took the position of Manager of Quality Control and Chief Inspector at TransAir Limited. From there he was appointed Manager of the Industrial Workshop for the Society of Crippled Children and Adults of Manitoba. Then for several years he served with the Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation. He was active in many community affairs: the Local Residents’ Advisory Group for the Midland Area and with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children and Adults. He served for many years as the President of the Manitoba School for the Deaf Home and School Associations in Winnipeg, and in Ottawa and Toronto, where he was a Charter and founding Member of the Ottawa Parents of the Deaf, and the Ontario Parents’ Council of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. He was an active member of St. John's Cathedral and served on the Vestry in the capacity of both Rector’s and People’s Warden over a period of many years. He was also a member of Victory Lodge Number 94 B.C.R, AF and AM, and a member of the Khartum Temple of the Shrine where he belonged to the Chanters’ Unit.
He died at Winnipeg on 8 November 2006 and was buried in the St. John’s Anglican Cathedral Cemetery.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 10 November 2006.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 18 July 2024
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