Five industry leaders honoured by Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame

 

July 15, 2011

 

CALGARY, AB – As the Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame celebrates its 15th anniversary in September, it will honor five industry leaders by welcoming them as its latest inductees.

This year’s slate of inductees includes among its members a major figure on Alberta’s political landscape, former premier Ernest Manning, who is being honoured with special recognition induction.

 

The four other inductees are Charles Fischer, Charles Fairbank, Edward (Ned) Gilbert and Alfred von Hammerstein.

 

Collectively, the inductees represent decades of significant achievements within one of Canada’s most important resource industries. Individually, their contributions symbolize a unique blend of entrepreneurial, technological and political savvy that reflect a commitment to industry that transcends a great career, noted Hall of Fame chairman Bill Whitelaw.

 

“As we do each year, we try to ensure our slate of nominees reflect the fact that great industries are built on great contributions that go beyond the day-to-day. As with all of our inductees, this year’s slate continues to reflect that legacy.”

 

The inductees will be honoured at a special gala dinner September 22 at Calgary’s downtown Westin Hotel. The annual dinner rotates, by tradition, between Calgary and Edmonton each year.

“It’s a special time each September, when industry leaders gather to honour their own and reflect on how what we’re doing today will shape the industry we’re building for the future,” noted Whitelaw. “Each inductee’s contribution has in no small measure laid the foundation for an industry that has a world-class reputation. Their efforts ought to inspire those currently adding to that foundation.”

 

The following are brief biographical backgrounds on each inductee.

 

Charles Fischer built a 40-year career in the Canadian oil and gas industry that would take him from the gas fields of central Alberta to the storm-tossed waters of the North Sea; from the frozen tundra of the Canadian Arctic to the searing heat of the north African desert. That career culminated in 2001, when he was named president and chief executive officer of Nexen Inc., and for much of the next eight years, his face – and his distinctive handlebar mustache – was the face of Nexen as it expanded internationally and consolidated its holdings in Canada.

Charles Fairbank III is synonymous with the oil history of Lambton County and Petrolia in southwestern Onatrio and is the fourth generation of the family producing oil longer than anyone in the world. Exactly 150 years ago, in 1861, his great-grandfather, John Henry Fairbank, (inducted into the Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame in 1997) began producing oil in Oil Springs, Ontario. In 1863, he devised the jerker line system for delivering power to the wells - a system Charles still uses in his oil field. Charles also operates Van Tuyl and Fairbank Hardware in Petrolia, which opened in 1865 and is among the oldest in Canada.

 

Edward (Ned) Gilbert is a name many outside the industry don’t recognize, but as a geologist and Sun Oil’s first employee in Western Canada, he was witness to the Leduc No. 1 gusher in 1947 and has been instrumental in the development of western Canada’s oilsands regions ever since. In 1949, Ned began scouting locations for a Sun Oil oilsands processing plant, and the following year directed a three-year core-hole drilling program before acquiring Lease 86 – current site of Suncor's existing oil sands operation.

 

Alfred von Hammerstein is inducted into the Pioneer category, as much for his colourful involvement in the early days of bitumen exploration as for his achievements in the industry. Calling himself a German count, von Hammerstein first arrived in the Athabasca region of Alberta in 1897, having detoured there en route to the Klondike gold fields. He had not come looking for oil but he was eventually drawn to the immense economic potential of the oilsands, and he was among the first, at the turn of the century, to actively explore the oilsands region of northeastern Alberta, drilling dozens of core holes along the Athabasca River between 1903 and 1909.

 

Ernest C. Manning is being recognized by the Hall this year with a Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing the tremendous contributions he made to the industry as a seven-term premier between 1944 and 1967. Born in Saskatchewan in 1908, he was first elected to the Alberta legislature in 1935 as a Social Credit MLA from Calgary, and was re-elected again in 1940, this time serving an Edmonton constituency. He was named leader of the Social Credit party and became premier of Alberta following the death in 1943 of William Aberhart and went on to dramatically change the focus of the Social Credit party.

 

For more information, please contact CPHOF Chairman Bill Whitelaw at 403.209.3503 or 403.462.5108. Other details about the dinner and sponsorship opportunities are available as well by visiting www.canadianpetroleumhalloffame.ca