A career of engineering and service

Posted by Peter Roaf 
on Aug 25, 2015
 
​Ladner Rotarian Wilbur Walrond, right, with fellow club member, Ray Moschuk, was born, one of nine children, on July 28, 1938 in the town of Couva, Trinidad.
 
Wilbur's father, Randolph Osric Walrond, himself one of seven, was the Headmaster at the Couva E.C. Elementary school, which Wilbur attended. His mother, who passed away earlier this year, was Floris Daphne Walrond, the eldest of 10.
 
In 1958, on graduation from Queen’s Royal College, at age 20, he departed with $296 Canadian in his pocket and the address of his new home, ”UBC Campus”.
 
 
 
Following graduation from UBC as an engineer, Wilbur started his career with a large structural engineering firm working for client, CBK Van Norman & Associates, whose specialty was the innovative design of round high-rise towers, then ended up working for that client. He pursued his career, registering over time as a professional engineer in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, the States of Washington, Colorado, Oregon and Alaska, and Trinidad and Tobago.
 
Wilbur joined the Rotary Club of Richmond in 1973 and became president of that club in 1979-81. He became a founding Member and Charter President of the  World Fellowship of Rotarian Gourmets in 1997 and remains a member to this day. He joined the Rotary Club of Steveston in 2009 and then the Rotary Club of Ladner in 2014. He has attended 13 Rotary International conferences in many parts of the world.  
 
Wilbur with parents and siblings 1974
       
Since the mid-1970s, Wilbur has served as Chairman of the Design Panel City of Richmond, B.C., founding member and president of the Trinidad and Tobago Cultural Society of British Columbia, founding member and charter president of the British Columbia Organization of Caribbean Cultural Associations, District Deputy Grand Master District 25 of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia & Yukon and guest speaker of Dominion Historica Canada at schools and to new immigrants.
 
In 2012 Wilbur received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, presented by fellow Ladner Rotarian Hon. Kerry-Lynne Findlay, QC MP Delta-Richmond East, for “For populating Canada and teaching them to adjust”.