Alan Goldworth( Joe) Bland 1963 – 1985
Joe Bland was Dick Johnson’ s successor and DCL’ s second President. Born in Ottawa in 1926, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Queen’ s University in 1949, and spent the following two years with a consulting engineering firm in Cornwall, Ontario. After working his way to Europe and back on a freighter, he worked with Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation from 1951 to 1954, officially joining DCL on January 14, 1954. He was appointed Engineer-in-Charge of Navy and Defence Research Board Projects, and was promoted later that year to Engineer-in-Charge of RCAF Projects.
The projects control area in which he worked dealt with troubleshooting such issues as design errors, omissions and changes, including tracking the problems through appropriate channels and getting the answers back to the sites as promptly as possible. In June 1956, Joe was loaned to the Northern Ontario Pipeline Crown Corporation, where he was responsible for the general supervision of construction and the engineering administration of contracts, along with phasing the work to meet completion deadlines.
Joe returned to DCL in July 1959, at which time he was appointed Head Office Administrative Engineer. Three years later, he was promoted to Assistant Chief Engineer( Construction Planning), and shortly thereafter was chosen to attend National Defence College in Kingston, Ontario— a one-year program designed for Senior Military Officers and a few select civilians. While at home on leave one weekend, he received a call from Dick Johnson, asking to meet with him. It was during this meeting that Dick told Joe of his recommendation to have Joe succeed him.( Coincidentally, Joe was 37 years old at the time.)
On June 28, 1963, Joe Bland was appointed President and General Manager of DCL, a position he would hold until his retirement in 1985. These years were a key time for the Corporation, filled with projects such as Expo 67, the move of DCL’ s European operations from France to Germany and the building of new ship repair facilities at CFB Halifax. Joe passed away on March 15, 2008. Those who worked with Joe recognized his legacy in Lorne Atchison’ s description of him as“ a great man and a great mentor.”
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