Remembering former Memorial engineering dean with Waterloo ties

Angus Bruneau, the founding dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at Memorial University, died February 19 at the age of 81.

Bruneau is remembered as an extraordinary visionary who made many significant contributions to Memorial during his tenure as dean from 1969 to 1974.

Recommended by Waterloo's Engineering dean 

Before moving to Newfoundland, he taught engineering at Waterloo, beginning as a junior lecturer in 1958.  It was Douglas Wright,

the University of Waterloo’s first dean of engineering, who recommended Bruneau, described as an “energetic and exceptionally talented faculty member”, as the best person for the job of starting up Memorial's new co-op engineering program.

Besides launching one of the first engineering co-op programs in Canada (Waterloo Engineering’s was the first), he created C-CORE, today a world-renowned research organization in remote sensing, ice engineering and geotechnical engineering.

After leaving Memorial, Bruneau founded Fortis Inc. in 1987 and served as its president and CEO from 1987 to 1996 and chairman of the board of directors from 1998 to 2006. Fortis is one of the top 15 power utilities in North America.

He was an officer of the Order of Canada, member of the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador, and president of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. He received an honorary DEng degree from the University of Waterloo in 2007 and honorary doctorates from Memorial and Dalhousie University.