Person

Holmlund, Blaine Adrian

1930-2006

Blaine Adrian Holmlund was born at his family’s home (Section 11, Township 27, Range 7, West of the 3rd meridian),roughly 9 miles west of Strongfield, Saskatchewan, on 27 July 1930. His career began at age 12, as a hired farm labourer. He worked variously at the general store and as a mechanic at the local garage prior to joining the CPR as a relief station agent and telegraph operator (December 1948-May 1955). One of his supervisors at the CPR strongly urged Blaine to consider University – not an option considered before by Blaine or one expected by his family. Blaine entered engineering at the University of Saskatchewan and put himself through, earning his BE in 1955 and his MSc in 1961. Following his graduation in 1955, Blaine worked as a development engineer for Shell; for Atomic Energy of Canada at Chalk River; and as a communications engineer for Sask Power. He was briefly also a lecturer in electrical engineering at the University; and in 1958 returned, joining the faculty of the University of Saskatchewan where he remained for the rest of his career. From 1958-1992 he served the University in a variety of capacities: as a professor of electrical engineering; of biomedical engineering; of computational science; of finance and quantitative methods. He established, and served as first director of: the Biomedical Engineering Program; the Computational Science Department; the Hospital Systems Study Group; and the University Studies Group. He was named VP (Special Projects) in 1980 and VP (Planning and Development) in 1985. Blaine served as Acting University President in 1989. He served on the Board of the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College from 1982-1993, and from November 1990-June 1991 was on secondment from the University to serve as Acting President of the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (now First Nations University of Canada). Blaine was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Saskatchewan in 1998. Following his retirement Blaine volunteered for Saskatoon Habitat for Humanity, helping to initiate partnerships with employment programs and to establish the Re-Store. He died in Saskatoon on 17 June 2006.