HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES
- 1991 -
S.K. Keith McWalter
Mr. McWalter was born and raised in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in Chemical Engineering in 1948. He joined Gulf Canada in Calgary that year and held positions of increasing responsibility at several company locations in Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. In 1973, he was assigned to Korea Oil Corporation, Seoul, Korea as Executive Vice-President and Chief Executive Officer. In 1975, he was appointed President of Korea Gulf Oil Company.
Mr. McWalter was appointed Executive Vice-President in Toronto and elected to the Board of Directors of Gulf Canada Limited in June 1984. In April 1985 he became Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Gulf Canada Limited and of Gulf Canada Corporation in February 1986 following a corporate reorganization. Under a further reorganization, effective July 1, 1987, the corporation’s oil and gas business was continued under the name of Gulf Canada Resources Limited, with S.K. McWalter President and Chief Executive Officer. In October 1988, in addition to these responsibilities, he was named Chairman of the Board. In 1991, Mr. McWalter was a director of Gulf Canada Resources Limited, Canada Life Assurance Company, and GW Utilities Limited. In 1981 he received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws degree from St. Thomas University, Fredericton, N.B., and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Course from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg, Pa. He was a member of the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists, and Geophysicists of Alberta.
William Stewart McGregor
Born in Saskatoon in 1916, William McGregor grew up on a ranch near Turner Valley, Alberta. In 1936, William organized McGregor Johanson Construction Ltd., a private road-building firm. For over a decade, William toiled away at highway projects. In 1947, the Leduc oil discovery brought him new opportunities, as it had for so many others. William moved to Edmonton where his company now built roads in northern Alberta and British Columbia, skidded drilling rigs from one location to another in the oilfields, and also built pads offshore for drilling rigs in the Mackenzie River Delta. The company grew to one of the largest oilfield construction companies in northern Alberta. William’s entrepreneurship didn’t stop with the construction business. Along with a few friends, he bought a half section of mineral rights from a farmer south of the main Leduc field. In 1952, they struck oil. This was the beginning of the company that was to become Consolidated Mic Mac Oils Ltd., which William headed as president and managing director. This company expanded into northern Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan. In addition to its own holdings, the company farmed out 100,000 acres to Hudson’s Bay Oil and Gas, Union Oil, and three other independents for a one-third interest. In 1963, Consolidated Mic Mac Oils Ltd. was bought out by Hudson’s Bay and within a few weeks incorporated Numac Oil & Gas Ltd., a public company listed on the Toronto, Montreal, and American Stock Exchange. In 1993, Numac was merged with Westcoast Petroleum under the name Numac Energy Inc.. William was president and CEO of Numac from 1963 to December 1992, and chairman of the board of directors, January 1 to August 31, 1993.
Byron J. Seaman
Byron J. (B.J.) Seaman was born in Rouleau, Saskatchewan. Like his brothers, Doc and Don Seaman, he has risen to become a legendary figure in both the worlds of petroleum and hockey.
B.J. received a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Saskatchewan. He began his petroleum industry career as a partner in Seaman Engineering Drilling, later named Bow Valley Industries Ltd, where he was Executive Vice President. He later became Chairman and CEO of Bovar Inc., formerly Bow Valley Resources Services. He served as a Director Emeritus of Provident Energy Trust and on the Board of Directors of Rider Resources Ltd.
B.J., his brothers, and a number of other investors were responsible for moving the Atlanta Flames NHL team to Calgary in 1980. B.J. remains one of the owners of the Flames.
B.J. has been actively involved with the University of Saskatchewan College of Engineering, and was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Engineering Advancement Trust in 1986. In 1992, the University of Saskatchewan bestowed on him an honorary Doctor of Science degree.
As Director of several companies, B.J. served as a liaison for Canadian governments in the transfer of Canadian technology to developing countries. B.J. was a member of the Premier’s Advisory Council on Science and Technology in Alberta from 1990-92.
Involved with numerous political, charitable, and community organizations, he received a special award in 1987 from the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists, and Geophysicists of Alberta in recognition of his outstanding contribution to society. He has also been awarded the Commemorative Medal for the 125th anniversary of the Confederation of Canada and was honored with the Paul Harris Award by the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International. He became C.J. Mackenzie Memorial Lecturer in 1991. On June 1, 2007, he was inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame.
Bill Mooney
Bill Mooney was born in Regina and educated at Athol Murrays College of Notre Dame in Wilcox, Saskatchewan before receiving a football scholarship to Colorado College. He began his oil career with Core Laboratories Inc. in 1952 and in 1957 joined Cities Service Oil Co. in Amarillo, Texas as a geologist. In the mid-1970s he became Cities Service’s first Canadian president. In 1973, Cities-with a 30 percent stake-was a keystone player in the planning and development of Syncrude Canada Ltd. As costs escalated, another 30 percent owner dropped out. It fell to Mooney to broker a deal with the governments of Canada, Alberta, and Ontario to keep the project alive. In 1980, having served in London as president of Cities Service Europe-Africa and the Middle East, he returned to Calgary as president of Harvard International Resources.
In 1989 he joined Pacific Gas Transmission as their Canadian representative. He contributed to the proposal leading to the disposal of Saskoil, worked on the 1985 Western Accord on Energy which brought the National Energy Program to a close, and helped realize the $4 billion Canadian Exploration and Development Incentive Program “CEDIP” and a federal-provincial agreement on increased crude prices. Mooney has been awarded the Notre Dame Medal of Honour. He has held multiple corporate directorships and has been influential in more than a dozen businesses, technical and professional organizations, in addition to participating in industry advisory committees to the government on environmental and public policy issues. He co-chaired the Energy Industry Zoo Prehistoric Park Fund Drive and Ladies Aid Children’s Hospital Golf Classic among many other events. He’s a charter member of the board of regents of Canadian Old Time Hockey Players and of numerous celebrity charity golf tournaments.
William A. Gatenby
William Arthur (Bill) Gatenby was born on November 27, 1925, in Leader, SK, where his mother’s family had homesteaded. After finishing high school, he left to take a program in Petroleum Engineering at Oklahoma University, finishing in 1951. He worked briefly in Calgary for Gulf Oil but decided to aim for a career in reservoir engineering which required more training. Bill moved back to the USA and earned his MSc from Pennsylvania State University in 1956. Shortly after, he began his lengthy career with Texaco in Venezuela, followed by assignments in several U.S. locations as well as Calgary. A highlight he often talked of was involved with the Bonnie Glen- Wizard Lake Leduc Formation miscible flood- an early and very successful EOR project in Alberta.
He was appointed President of Texaco Canada Resources in 1981 and held the position until 1988. Not ready for retirement, Bill accepted the position of President and CEO of the newly formed Cameco Corporation a role that offered him and his family the opportunity to move back to Saskatchewan and which afforded many opportunities for world travel with trips to Japan, Germany, and Russia. In 1991, while still sitting on several Boards of Directors, Bill finally retired to his beloved farm at Sceptre, SK which he had begun assembling in the fifties still remains in the family. He lived independently and was actively involved in day-to-day farm operations up to the last month of his life.
John R. (Bud) McCaig
Born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, John McCaig (aka “Bud”) dropped out of high school to become a truck driver, following in the footsteps of his father, Jack McCaig, for whom he worked in the Maccam Transport Company. Over the course of almost six decades, Bud McCaig’s vision and energy transformed a small trucking company started in the shadow of the Great Depression into one of Canada’s greatest transportation success stories.
Opportunity knocked for the McCaigs in 1947 when Imperial Oil’s Leduc No. 1 well struck oil, igniting the Alberta oil boom, and creating an instant market for petroleum transport. By 1949, Maccam Transport was the largest petroleum transporter in Saskatchewan, and with Alberta booming, Maccam quickly became one of the West’s largest bulk haulers, transporting an annual average of over one million gallons of petroleum products per week.
When Bud’s father retired in 1962, Bud and his two brothers formed a new holding company called TriMac. Bud took the helm of the operation, and they quickly built one of the most successful companies in North America.
The company expanded from its transportation roots, growing into a major international company that not only hauled petroleum products but also supplied various services to oilfields across the country and beyond. In addition, the company also invested in oilfield exploration, pipeline developments, and contract drilling.
McCaig also played a significant role in Calgary’s health care community. One of his passions was research in the area of the treatment and prevention of arthritis, leading to the establishment of the McCaig Centre for Joint Injury and Arthritis Research in 1993.
McCaig also served as chairman of the board of the Foothills Hospital Foundation in the early 1990s, spearheading the Partners in Health initiative that raised $50 million for the hospital.
In the mid-1990s, he served as chairman of the Calgary Regional Health Authority. In 1999, he became a member of the Order of Canada. McCaig was also a passionate hockey fan and an owner of the Calgary Flames.
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