William A. B. (Al) Saunders, P.Eng., APEGGA’s president in 1970-71, died Dec. 30 in Edmonton, at age 84.

A native of Calgary, Mr. Saunders, received his B.Sc. (1941) and M.Sc. (1951) in civil engineering from the University of New Brunswick. He obtained a diploma in geology and surveying from the Provincial Institute of Technology (later SAIT) in Calgary in 1935.

Mr. Saunders served during the Second World War as a pilot and flight instructor. Following the war, he taught aeronautics at what became the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary, becoming its vice principal. In 1962, he moved to Edmonton as president of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT). He left that position in 1971 when he was appointed Alberta’s deputy minister of public works.

He was an APEGGA Councillor from 1963 to 1966 and Vice President from 1966-70, prior to serving as Association President for the 1970-71 term.

His services to his profession were recognized with an APEGGA Special Award in 1973 and he was given the Association’s highest recognition, the Centennial Award, in 1978.

He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta.

He undertook a number of international advisory assignments, including as a member of a Canadian delegation which studied the International Technical Institute of Turin, Italy, and headed a Canadian team which advised Zambia on its technical institute.

He was a member of the board of the Alberta Housing Corp. and the Alberta Home Mortgage Corp., and a member of the University of Alberta Senate.

Mr. Saunder’s immediate survivors include his wife, Connie; son, Harry; daughter, Connie Janet, and sister Ellenor Henshaw. He was predeceased by a son, William.