A soft spot for COGS
Reviewing the important work done by surveyors
I have believed for a long time that one of the least-appreciated assets in this part of the province is the Nova Scotia Community College’s Centre of Geographic Sciences (COGS) in Lawrencetown.
Students come from all over to study there and take their skills across the country and probably around the world.
COGS started in 1948 when the Nova Scotia Land Survey Institute (NSLSI) was established by Maj. J.A.H. Church (retired) as a training institution for survey and map production. In 1998, as the world of surveying was changing, the institution started using all the new technology available and was added to the Nova Scotia Community College.
The story is longer than I have related here and can be found in The Story of COGS written by Bob Mayer and Heather Stewart.
I have a soft spot in my heart for the place. A number of years ago, I was involved in some research for a volunteer group called mapannapolis.ca. In order to start the project, a small, dedicated group would haunt the halls of COGS and listen to any instructor who would help us figure out how we could get this project done. We were treated so well, we ate in the great cafeteria, and I certainly felt like a rather ancient student at the time.
My grandfather J.L. Rannie (Les) graduated in civil engineering in 1907. He undertook post graduate study in astronomy and geodesy, which led to the bachelor of applied science in 1909. He obtained his dominion land surveyor’s commission in 1909 and a certificate as a dominion topographical surveyor in 1914. He was also a qualified Quebec land surveyor. During the summers of 1903 to 1906, he was attached to the Canadian Government Railway in Western Canada and employed on railway location, construction, and bridge building. He joined the Geodetic Survey in 1907, shortly after its formation in 1905, and thus was one of the early observers on triangulation.
As dominion geodesist, he was “His Britannic Majesty's Canadian Boundary Commissioner” and during his tenure in that office he appended his signature with that of John Ulinsky, U.S. boundary commissioner, to a report confirming a delineation of a portion of the Yukon-Alaska boundary.
And so when a cousin of mine sent me the book detailing the work my grandfather and Ulinsky did surveying part of the border between the Yukon and the United States, I knew the bound green document should be in the COGS library so students could see how surveys were done in “the olden days.”
The librarian was most gracious when we talked about the donation of the report. I will be sending Ms. Heighton some biographical information to go along with the book. I remember Grandpa Rannie at their house in the Glebe in Ottawa. He was a lovely man, full of fun and always a smile for his grandchildren.
My Mom and Dad were engaged in Ottawa. Dad went to England to join the Royal Air Force in 1939. My Grandpa got passage for both he and my Mom to go to England in the spring of 1940. The wedding took place, and my Grandpa was able to “give the bride away” before heading back to Ottawa. I think of those ocean voyages in the spring of 1940 and how dangerous it would have been.
Grandpa did survey work in the Arctic, in Labrador and northern Quebec. There is a lake named after him (posthumously) in Labrador, which is now under the waters created by the Churchill Dam project. And there is a township in Quebec named after him. The other big “thing” he did was work on new surveyors’ transits to reduce the weight without sacrificing accuracy. He became known as “the apostle of the optical theodolite.”
Grandpa Rannie developed Parkinson’s disease just before he retired. During his scant three years of retirement in Ottawa, he became a curler, and a very good one. His death came on Feb. 9, 1954, from a massive heart attack while he was sweeping furiously on Glebe Curling Club ice.
Should you wonder why I am telling you this story about my Grandpa Rannie, the work that surveyors of the land have been far more important than we think. And the other reason is that my Uncle Bill took the time to write the story about my grandfather so his descendants would know who he was. I was fortunate to know him.