Robert A. Boyd (June 21, 1918 – November 6, 2006) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

and

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executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive dir ...

. He successfully led the

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form Physical object, objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Pr ...

of the first phase of the James Bay hydroelectric project, a large

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

complex built in northern

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

by Hydro-Québec during the 1970s and early 1980s.

Early life and family

Born in

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( ; ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François and Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional cou ...

in a working-class family to a

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father and a French Canadian mother. Boyd graduated from

École Polytechnique de Montréal École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scal ...

in 1943.

Career

Soon after finished school, Boyd joined the ranks of the newly created provincially owned

Hydro-Québec, as the first French-speaking engineer ever hired by the company. He spent his 37-year career in different positions, reaching the top job in 1977. In 1972,

Quebec Premier The premier of Quebec (French: ''premier ministre du Québec'' (masculine) or ''première ministre du Québec'' (feminine)) is the head of government of the Canadian province of Quebec. The current premier of Quebec is François Legault of th ...

Robert Bourassa asked Boyd to take the helm of the Société d'énergie de la Baie James, a Crown corporation tasked with the construction of the first phase of what was then called ''Le projet du siècle (The Project of the Century)'', a network of dams,

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

s and three giant hydroelectric generating stations located in a remote area north of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

. Stretching for east of

James Bay James Bay (french: Baie James; cr, ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, Wînipekw, dirty water) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean, of which James Bay is the southernmost pa ...

along the course of the

La Grande River La Grande River (french: La Grande Rivière; cr, Chisasibi, script=latn; both meaning "great river") is a river in northwestern Quebec, Canada, which rises in the highlands of north central Quebec and flows roughly west to drain into James Bay. ...

, the 10,000 MW

public works Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, sc ...

project presented massive

logistical Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...

challenges to the builders: roads and

airstrip An aerodrome ( Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for pub ...

s had to be built and towns for the 18,000 workers had to be set up deep into the Quebec

Hinterland Hinterland is a German word meaning "the land behind" (a city, a port, or similar). Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated ...

. Boyd took over as president of Hydro-Québec on August 9, 1977, after the departure of financier Roland Giroux. During his 4-year tenure as president of the Crown Corporation, Boyd secured large

bond Bond or bonds may refer to: Common meanings * Bond (finance), a type of debt security * Bail bond, a commercial third-party guarantor of surety bonds in the United States * Chemical bond, the attraction of atoms, ions or molecules to form chemica ...

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s with

international International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

banks to finish the construction project. On October 27, 1979, Boyd inaugurated, with Premier René Lévesque, the LG-2 generating station, a massive 5,616 MW underground powerhouse buried deep in the Canadian Shield. Construction on Phase I of the James Bay Project was completed in 1984, when La Grande-3 and La Grande-4 generating stations came on-line further upstream.

Honors and awards

In 1978, he received an honorary doctorate from Concordia University. Boyd was selected Construction's Man of the Year in 1981 by the ''

Engineering News-Record ''Engineering News-Record'' (widely known as ''ENR'') is an American weekly magazine that provides news, analysis, data and opinion for the construction industry worldwide. It is widely regarded as one of the construction industry's most authorita ...

'' for his work on the James Bay project.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyd, Robert A. Canadian electrical engineers Officers of the Order of Canada Officers of the National Order of Quebec James Bay Project Hydro-Québec 1918 births 2006 deaths Quebec civil servants Canadian chief executives People from Sherbrooke

Early life and family

Career

Honors and awards

See also

References