Interpreting Earth from Air and Space; The First 60 Years at J.D. Mollard and Associates
By Edward Willett
Reviewed by Doug VanDine, P.Eng, .PGeo (BC), FEC, FGC
In February 1956, at the age of 31, J.D. (Jack) Mollard started his namesake engineering and geology consulting company in Regina. Jack passed away in September 2017. To celebrate 60 successful years in business, the company started preparing How We Saw It in 2016. Unfortunately, Jack did not live to see the book published.
The initial chapters are about Jack and the early years of J.D. Mollard and Associates (JDMA). The book tells of his early years growing up during the depression on a farm near Watrous, his school years, his graduate work in the United States and his early work with the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Jack became skilled in stereoscopic air photo interpretation, which was relatively new at the time.
Through his company, he introduced this skill to Canada and to a wide variety of engineering and geological projects.
The book explores how Jack and his colleagues applied their knowledge and experience to terrain analysis, water resources, linear routing studies and aggregate exploration, with examples of projects to demonstrate their skills and technologies. The last chapter further describes the new technologies adopted by JDMA: satellite imagery, geophysical surveys, ground-penetrating radar, GIS, 3-D modelling, LiDAR, and UAVs (drones).
The book is written by Edward Willet (the author of APEGS’s History of Engineering and Geoscience in Saskatchewan) and benefited from contributions by JDMA staff. The book was professionally designed and produced by Catharine Bradbury.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading How we saw it. It would be an enjoyable read for anyone interested in the history of the geotechnical professional in Canada or why and how JDMA has been so successful (and will continue to be successful). It is available from J.D. Mollard and Associates (2010) Limited, 1720-2002 Victoria Ave.,
Regina, SK, S4P 0R7 admin@jdmollard.com.
Doug VanDine is the principal of VanDine Geological Engineering Limited, Victoria, BC.