I was saddened to hear the news that Roger Tomlinson, the father of GIS, had passed away on February 9, 2014.  While born and educated in England, Canada was the place of Roger’s greatest triumphs in academia and industry.  He is a giant in the Geographic Information Systems world as he invented it.  Over the years, I have been lucky enough to meet Roger a few times in Ottawa as our paths have crossed at places like the last Royal Canadian Geographic Society dinner in November and the Algonquin college GIS day events in years past.  When I had the pleasure of speaking with Roger, I always found he was eager to talk and participate in anything related to GIS.  Like many, I wish that I had known him much better than our few brief conversations.

I have a few links here to some of his achievements that you might find interesting.   It was the creation of the Canada Land Inventory (CLI) in 1962 that really put him on the map. The link will give you an explanation of who he was and why he was so important in the Canadian geomatics community and internationally. He is, after all, the Father of GIS.

Wikipedia Article with bio

Small Obit – from GIS Lounge

UCG for GIS Article on Roger Tomlinson

Creation of the Canada Land Inventory (CLI) in 1962.