Memorable Manitobans: Welland “Stoney” Stonehouse (1922-2007)

Agriculturalist.

Born at McAuley on 11 March 1922, one of ten children of Hector Stonehouse (1879-1939) and Robina Young (1883-1972), he moved with his family to Two Creeks where he attended school until the age of 17. He was hired as manager of the poultry barn at the University of Manitoba. He attended night school while working, eventually entering the Faculty of Agriculture from which he graduated with a BSA in 1952.

He began his professional career as an Agricultural Representative at Shoal Lake. He was actively involved with 4-H. In 1956, he transferred to Carberry where he continued to coach and mentor 4-H members. He formed a Junior Farmers’ Organization which improved seed cleaning facilities and irrigation systems, and establishing test plots for various vegetables. To support the growing potato industry, he worked to create a development corporation which purchased the RCAF base at Carberry. The facility was later sold to J. R. Simplot which established a potato processing facility there. He was instrumental in forming the “Manitoba Potato King” award to recognize top producers. He worked for Simplot then Standard Chemical. From 1969 to 1989, he worked for Chipman Chemicals, now Syngenta, where he developed the use of foliar fungicides for the control of powdery mildew in irrigated wheat, desiccants on potatoes and pulse crops, a potato seed piece treatment, and a new grass herbicide for broadleaf crops. He introduced chemical fallow, reduced tillage, and direct seeding methods.

He was a Liberal candidate for the Cypress constituency in the 1962 provincial general election but was defeated by incumbent Bessie Forbes.

He died at Medicine Hat, Alberta on 20 July 2007 and was buried in the Carberry Cemetery. He was inducted posthumously into the Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame (2008).

Sources:

Citation, Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame.

Obituary [Robina Stonehouse], Winnipeg Free Press, 5 August 1972, page 35.

Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 26 July 2007.

Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 3 January 2018

Memorable Manitobans

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