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Born
November 30, 1933 at Breton Alberta (SE1/4 of Sec. 34, Twp. 47, Rge. 4, W4M).
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Grew up on a
farm at the above location.
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Attended
school in Breton until
1951 when he
left to work in the oil patch on a seismic crew.
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Attended
SAIT for two years in the Survey Technology Program from
1954 to
1956.
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Some of the
other surveyors in that program period were Walter Kiriak, Rolly Moen,
Bernie Rachansky,
Keith Smith, Bob
Baker, Ernie Tessari
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Commenced
articles with D. Rae Sutherland, ALS in
1956
and registered as an ALS in
1959, DLS and
MLS in 1962
and SLS in 1965.
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Moved to
Grande Prairie in 1965
to join with Denis Hosford, ALS and
Paul White ALS in a firm that was the forerunner of what is now HIW
Surveys in Grande Prairie. He was the senior partner in this firm
for a number of years until retirement in
1997.
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All of his
experience was in the area of private practice. He carried out
surveys from the Yukon Territory, Northern BC, throughout Alberta,
Saskatchewan and Manitoba as well as in a number of communities in
NWT.
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Apart from
some municipal surveys in the north, his specialty was mining
claims. The sample plans for mining claims in the old DLS manual
were a copy of some plans he had prepared during the late 1960s.
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Did a lot of
claim surveys at Thompson, Manitoba. His first trip to Thompson in
1958 was when
there was only a fuel barrel and a lake there. Worked with
W.H.
Jones, MLS, ALS during several seasons there.
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Also
surveyed some major mining properties in northern Saskatchewan using
Doppler techniques which was a first also in that field.
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He was
involved in the acquisition of the first electronic measuring device
in Alberta (Geodimeter Model 6) through his firm in Grande Prairie.
Also registered the first metric plan in Land Titles at Edmonton
(this was later converted to imperial as LTO decided that the
legislation was not yet appropriate to handle this after the fact).
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His practice
in the south (of 60) was generally related to oilfield and municipal
work, included a retracement of the Trans-Canada Pipeline from
Winnipeg, Manitoba to Moosomin, Saskatchewan.
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In more
recent years, he was involved in a couple of survey control and
mapping projects in Peru, South America. Since retirement, he did
some volunteer work in both Peru and Bolivia on property
identification projects.
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Hugh Impey
was elected mayor of Grande Prairie in
1980 and
played a major role in the Grande Prairie Park developments.
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His work
within the Alberta Land Surveyors’ Association was recognized in
1984 when he
received the Outstanding Service Award. Hugh Impey served on
numerous ALSA committees and served as vice-president and president
in 1993-1994.
In 2000, in
recognition of all of his achievements, Hugh Impey was made an
honorary life member in the Alberta Land Surveyors’ Association.
