Past-Presidents

APEGA has existed for almost 100 years, and for every year of its existence, there has been a president of Council to uphold the pillars that APEGA stands for: integrity, accountability, innovation, and service. Through the decades of change and growth, the men and women listed below led APEGA’s Council.

They have worked across the globe, from Mississippi to Venezuela, but all settled their talents here in Alberta. Each came from different walks of life, from serving in the Second World War, to teaching aeronautics, to instigating first-time overseas ventures. This incredible group made its mark on the world and on APEGA.

All of these outstanding people helped make APEGA what it is today, and all were thanked for their service with an Honorary Life Membership award—a framed medallion memento—inducting them as life members of APEGA.

1958: George W. Govier, OC, P.Eng., FEC, FGC (Hon.)

george-govier

A native of Nanton, Alta., Dr. George Govier received his PhD in chemical engineering from the of in 1948 after obtaining his bachelor’s and master's degrees from the of and the , respectively. From 1940 to 1963 he was associated with the University of Alberta and became dean of engineering in 1960.

In 1962 he began a 16-year term as chair of the Alberta Oil and Gas Conservation Board, and for much of that period also served as part-time professor of engineering at the University of Calgary. He took a two-year leave of absence from the board in 1975 to become 's chief deputy minister of energy and natural resources. In 1978 he began his own resource management consulting firm, Govier Consulting Services Ltd.

Elected to Council of the Association of Professional Engineers of Alberta (APEA; now the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta) in 1951, Govier was elected association vice-president in 1957 and president in 1958. He is also a past-president of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum and a member of many other technical and professional associations including the Engineering Institute of Canada, the Chemical Institute of Canada, and the American Institute of Chemical Engineering. Among the numerous awards he has received are the Association’s Honorary Life Membership in 1959, the Centennial Leadership Award in 1970, and the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers’ (now Engineers Canada) Gold Medal in 1976. He was named Oilweek Magazine's Oilman of the Year in 1978 and appointed an officer of the Order of in 1982. In 2009, he was named a fellow of Engineers Canada. In 2013, he was named an honorary fellow of Geoscientists Canada and he was inducted into the Alberta Order of Excellence.

Govier was widely recognized as one of the chief architects of Alberta's petroleum industry. He played a key role in founding the Petroleum Recovery Institute. He published more than 60 technical papers and was senior author of the engineering textbook The Flow of Complex Mixtures in Pipes. In 1999 he was inducted into the Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame. Govier passed away in 2016.