Railwayman, municipal official.
Born at Otterville, Ontario on 5 November 1899, he later moved to Brantford where he attended elementary and high school. During the First World War, he served overseas with the CASC Reserve Officers. Following his military discharge, he attended the School of Practical Science at the University of Toronto. He left university before graduation to take a resident engineer's job at Winnipeg with the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. He retired in 1960 as Industrial Commissioner for the Western Region of the Canadian National Railway.
On 18 March 1920, he married Anne Elizabeth “Betty” Hawley (1900-1988) at Brantford, Ontario and soon after moved to Winnipeg. They subsequently had four daughters: Margaret Elizabeth “Peggy” Ostrander (1920-2006, wife of Peter Gravel and Donald A. Cutler), Mary Elaine “Marilyn” Ostrander (1921-2008, wife of M. Fitzgibbons), Joan Hawley Ostrander (1930-2020, wife of William C. “Bill” Johnson), and Diane Ostrander (1931-2018, wife of Gary K. Oliphant).
He was a member of the Engineering Institute of Canada, Winnipeg Branch of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (President), Association of Professional Engineers of Manitoba, Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, Industrial Development Board (President), Norwood United Church, Grand Lodge of Manitoba (Deputy Grand Master 1966, Worshipful Grand Master 1967), Masons (Norwood Chapter), Khartum Shriners, Royal Order of Scotland, Order of DeMolay, and Fort Garry Senior Curlers. He served as Vice-Chair (1960-1966) and Chair (1966-1968) of the Metropolitan Corporation of Greater Winnipeg.
He died at the St. Boniface Hospital on 29 May 1976 and was buried in the Chapel Lawn Memorial Gardens.
Ontario marriage registration, Ancestry.
Birth registrations [Margaret Elizabeth Ostrander, Mary Elaine Ostrander], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“Ostrander see self as head of a caretaker government,” Winnipeg Free Press, 23 July 1966, page 6.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 31 May 1976, page 23.
Obituary [Anne Elizabeth Ostrander], Winnipeg Free Press, 11 October 1988, page 34.
Obituary [Margaret E. Cutler], Winnipeg Free Press, 2 September 2006.
Obituary [Mary Elaine Fitzgibbons], Winnipeg Free Press, 20 December 2008.
Obituary [Diane Oliphant], Arbor Memorial.
Obituary [Joan Hawley Johnson], Winnipeg Free Press, 3 October 2020.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 9 October 2026
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