- Patrick McTaggart-Cowan
Patrick Duncan McTaggart-Cowan, OC, MBE,
D.Sc ,LL.D (May 31 1912 –October 11 1997 ) was a Canadianmeteorologist and the first president ofSimon Fraser University .Born in
Edinburgh ,Scotland , he moved toNorth Vancouver, British Columbia , Canada with his family in 1913. He received a degree in Mathematics and Physics from theUniversity of British Columbia in 1933. ARhodes Scholar , he received aBachelor of Arts in Natural Science fromCorpus Christi College, Oxford in 1936.Returning to Canada, he joined the
Meteorological Service of Canada and was an officer in charge of the meteorological service in Newfoundland from 1937 to 1942. DuringWorld War II , he was the chief meteorologist for theRAF Ferry Command and was made a Member of theOrder of the British Empire in 1944.After the war, he moved to
Ontario and re-joined the Meteorological Service of Canada becoming its director in 1959.In 1963, he was appointed the first president of
Simon Fraser University and served until 1968. He then became the Executive Director of theScience Council of Canada and served until his retirement in 1975.In 1979, he was made an Officer of the
Order of Canada for his "internationally recognized achievements in meteorology". [http://www.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/honours-desc.asp?lang=e&TypeID=orc&id=1157] He was awarded seven honorary doctorates.In 1939, he married Margaret Palmer and they had two children: Gillian and James Duncan.
His brother is the naturalist
Ian McTaggart-Cowan , and his sister the architectPamela Charlesworth .References
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