Memorable Manitobans: William Leslie “Les” Wardrop (1915-2017)

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William Leslie Wardrop
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Engineer.

Born at Whitemouth on 18 December 1915, son of David Malcolm Wardrop and Mabel Josephine Cousins (1894-1989, daughter of William Henry Cousins), he attended Whitemouth School and received a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Manitoba (1939). He then served in Signal Corps of the Canadian military during the Second World War, after which he returned to the University and received a degree in civil engineering (1947). He began working as a waterworks engineer with the City of Winnipeg Sewage and Waterworks Department then, in 1955, founded W. L. Wardrop & Associates, an engineering consulting firm based in Winnipeg. It later became known as Wardrop Engineering Limited and did engineering work all over the world. He retired in 1980 but remained on the company’s Board of Director for many years.

He served as President of the Association of Professional Engineers of Manitoba (1959-1960), Canadian Council of Professional Engineers (1961-1962), Canadian Institute of Pollution Control (1960), and Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce (1970-1971). He was Chairman of the Industrial Development Board of Greater Winnipeg (1969) and Salvation Army Advisory Board (1978), and a director of the Royal Canadian Mint and the Biomass Energy Institute. He was a member of the Board for the Misericordia Hospital (1977-1983), Manitoba Enterprise Development Board (Chair, 1980-1985), and campaign chair for the New Activity Centre at the Middlechurch Home of Winnipeg (1980). In recognition of his exemplary community service, he was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Manitoba (2006).

He died at Winnipeg on 19 September 2017.

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Wardrop House (Whitemouth, RM of Whitemouth)

Sources:

Birth registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.

Descendants of the Family of Walter Wardrop and Mary Lawson by Les Wardrop, 2010, page 99-B.

Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.

Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 27 September 2017.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 3 August 2022

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

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