T.W. Brown

We regret to record the death of Thomas Wood Brown, DLS, SLS and ALS which, occurred at Edmonton on December 11th, 1945.

Mr. Brown was born at Alberton, Ontario, on November 10th, 1879. After graduating from the University of Toronto in 1907 with the degree of B.A.Sc. he served his articles with B.J. Saunders on baseline surveys in Alberta, and received his commission as Dominion Land Surveyor in 1909.

He was commissioned as an Alberta Land Surveyor in 1912 and was president of the Alberta Land Surveyors’ Association in 1936.

Joining the staff of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, he laid out many of the original townsites between Winnipeg and the Rockies along what is now the main line of the Canadian National Railway.

In 1911 he opened up a private practice in Saskatoon, and for many years carried on surveying in the prairie provinces, later merging this work with municipal and government contracting in the constructional field. In 1933 he commenced mining claim surveys in Great Bear Lake district, and still later moved to Yellowknife on similar work.

During the war years he undertook airport and constructional surveys for the RCAF in Alberta, and later transferred to the Canol Pipeline project for the US Army. In 1944 he returned to mining claim surveys at Yellowknife, where he worked until August 1945. Essentially an outdoor man, he has left a host of friends in the north country, where everyone who knew him was familiar with his simple and forthright approach to any problem arising in the field.

He is survived by his widow, the former Nellie Thompson of Toronto, two daughters and one son; another son, Squadron Leader W.W. Brown, having been reported missing over France since early in 1944.

Canadian Surveyor, January 1946