Life Members

Life membership may be granted to current or former CDA members whose lifetime of dedication and achievement has contributed significantly to the dam industry in Canada. The CDA Honours and Awards Committee recommends individual(s) to the Board for receiving Life Membership. Generally, recipients will have retired from active work (beyond occasional individual consulting) and will have been active members of the CDA or its predecessor associations for at least 10 years. Life Membership includes complimentary membership in CDA.

Life Membership Application Form

Meet Joe Farwell, P.Eng. MBA, 2022 recipient:

Joe joined the engineering staff at the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) in 1988, serving in various roles until retiring as Chief Administrative Office in 2019.

As a member of the Ontario Dam Owners Advisory Committee, he worked with several members of the dam community to develop technical guidelines for dam safety in Ontario.  Joe joined the board of CDA as the Ontario Director in 2005, going on to become vice president and then president of the Association between 2008-2011. He currently serves on the CDA membership committee.

Joe continues to be active in dam management, and has recently returned to the GRCA for a short-term assignment to evaluate their dam safety program, and act as the interim flood director.

Meet Richard Trimble, M.Sc. (Eng.), FEC, P.Eng., 2022 recipient:

Mr. Trimble is a Principal Consultant with Tetra Tech Canada in Whitehorse YT, specializing in geotechnical and permafrost engineering. He has nearly 45 years of experience including 42 years as Senior Engineer and Office Manager for Tetra Tech’s Yukon Region. In his current role as a Principal Consultant, he continues to undertake site evaluations and engineering design work; dam safety inspections, and provides mentoring and senior review of geotechnical and permafrost engineering services provided by the YT and NWT offices.  He has been a member of the CDA for numerous years and served on the Board as the Northern Territories Director from 2014 to 2019 – this included participation on several board committees.  He is dedicated to northern engineering and has hoped that his work with CDA has increased the general knowledge of the effects of permafrost on the design and construction of dams in northern Canada.

Meet John Nunn, P. Eng., M.I.C.E., C.Eng.2022 recipient:

John retired after a 45-year career in the assessment, design, and construction of hydroelectric and water storage projects in Canada and overseas. He joined CDSA in 1986. 
John was active in community service for over 30 years and received the Community Service Award from APEGBC in 2006.  He is currently President of the Juan de Fuca Marine Rescue Society in Sooke, BC. 
He was appointed Director of BC Hydro in January 2018 and Director of Powertech Labs Inc in July 2021.  He is the BC Hydro Board Representative for Dam Safety. 

Meet Jean-Pierre Tournier,  P. Eng., Ph. D., FEIC2022 recipient:

Educated in Paris and Montréal, Dr. Tournier obtained a PhD from Université of Sherbrooke in 1971. He worked for Hydro Québec, then for Lalonde-Girouard-Letendre (LGL), where he soon became head of the geotechnical department. He established an affiliate LGL company in Haiti and was its president for seven years. He returned to Canada and worked for LGL as responsible for international operations. He rejoined Hydro-Québec and over the next 17 years was promoted to chief engineer of hydroelectric developments. As his international reputation grew, he became a private consultant and an expert consultant to Hydro-Québec’s Engineering Manager. 
Today, Dr. Tournier is a well-appreciated expert all over the world, with assignments in 15 countries over the past 10 years. He plays a key role in the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD), where he is a superb Canada representative, with his technical skills on design and construction of infrastructure projects and his multicultural people skills. 

The previous honourees are:

  • Inge Anderson
  • Bob Barnes
  • Mona Bechai
  • Leo Christl
  • Bill Duncan
  • Joe Farwell
  • Richard Gervais   
  • Phillip Gilks
  • Jim Gordon
  • Christian Guillaud
  • Garth Haack
  • Yousef Hammamji   
  • Charles Holder
  • Marion Houston
  • Barry Hurndall
  • Sayed Ismail    
  • Will Jolley
  • Allan Kirkham
  • Pius Ko
  • Guy S. Larocque       
  • Denis LeBoeuf     
  • Tim Little
  • Norbert R. Morgenstern 
  • John Morrison   
  • Huu Phong Nguyen
  • John Nunn
  • Jean-Jacques Paré
  • Garry Poole
  • Marty Puro
  • Clare Raska
  • Anthony (Tony) Rattue
  • Stephen Rigbey
  • Gordon Schellenberg
  • Grant Smith
  • Ray Stewart
  • Mai Phat Tai
  • James Tang
  • Tony Tawil
  • Michael Thompson
  • Richard Trimble
  • Jean-Pierre Tournier
  • Gérard Verzeni
  • Don Welch
  • Andy Zielinski