(1861-1937) Professor of Engineering at U of T; Society President (1912-13).

LOUIS B. STEWART (1861-1937) was born in Port Hope, Ontario, and trained as a land surveyor. His father, George, was a Civil Engineer, and Louis worked with him on the survey of Banff National Park prior to serving with the 92nd Regiment in the North-West Rebellion of 1885. He joined the faculty of the School of Practical Science, one of the original three members of that institution which later became the University of Toronto's Engineering Faculty. Though most of L.B. Stewart's career was spent as a professor of engineering at the U of T, he was involved in surveying in the Yukon during the gold rush of 1898, and in Hudson Bay, the Gulf of St Lawrence and the Maritimes. After the Meteorological Service gave up the Toronto Observatory on the U of T campus, Stewart used it for teaching purposes. The building is now named the L. B. Stewart Observatory, though the telescope has long since been moved and is now at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa.

The natural link between Stewart's main interests of astronomy, geodesy and surveying resulted in a number of papers in publications such as Canadian Engineer as well as the Journal of the RASC. He lectured at meetings of the Society a few times and served as Vice-President and President (1912-13).

—Peter Broughton (from Looking Up)

Further Reading

• JRASC articles by L.B. Stewart