Building Expertise

Building Expertise

When I was in university, Mr. Affleck hired another university student to be my assistant for the

summer, and we worked for two summers surveying mineral claims. My God, we worked hard. I

looked after one survey crew, and I was the surveyor. I became quite proficient in surveying

mining property.

That work with Mr. Affleck was very meaningful. I was getting top wages, you know, adult

wages as a youngster, which allowed me to pay for four years of civil engineering. My wife was

with me at the university, which was quite unique at that time. Her family had broken up, so she

came with me to university.

When I was in university and when I got my surveyor’s license, I was already known to have

expertise in mining claims. After I graduated, a professor with a PhD approached me one day,

saying that he knew I had a lot of knowledge about surveying mining claims. I was asked to

teach a course on surveying to first year engineering students. It was a good subject to work

with. For students to learn and solve problems, I gathered examples on mining claim properties.

Most of the kids were not interested in it, but it was a project-based course, and it was very good

pay, double the pay that I would get later on. That teaching job was a good start.

I have fond memories of the graduation windup party we had. I was not much of a party person. I

never drank beer. I don't like beer. I don't like smoking. Mr. Affleck was the same. God, he laid

out a good plan. But anyway, at the windup party, I remember talking about our plans with my

fellow graduates. Everybody was looking forward to some great employment somewhere. I still

remember saying, “Well, I'm just going back to the same job I've been working on for the last

eight years.” And I said, “I kinda like it and got a good job and guaranteed work.”

The other graduates didn’t know where they were going, but they didn't think carefully about

their future. When you got a university education in those days—in 1955—having a good job to

go to was quite important. One guy in my year graduated and then went back and took a medical

degree. So, people didn't really know where they were going at the time. But I certainly knew

what I was going to do. I went right back to work for Mr. Affleck on the survey of the Burlington

Northern Railway. A technical problem had arisen because the project wasn’t properly

registered. It had already been surveyed as far as the upper reaches of Nelson, but it was not

registered. The surveying had to be done all over again, and the job fell to me.