John Plant Full Interview

John Plant worked for Frost and Woods, a farm equipment manufacturing company in his hometown, Smiths Falls, planning to become a chartered accountant. He applied to be a pilot in the Canadian Air Force but problems with his left eye led him to the Regular Officer Training Program at Royal Military College (RMC) in Kingston. After two years, in 1954, he left to train in Royal Navy ships and studied Marine Engineering at the Royal Navy and Naval Engineering College in Plymouth, England. He took a World War II anti-submarine frigate through a refit in Saint John and was then offered an opportunity to do graduate studies at MIT, where he eventually earned a PhD in Electrical Engineering. He arrived with his family at RMC as a professor of electrical engineering in 1965, became department head in 1967, and resigned his commission to become Dean of Graduate Studies and Research in 1970, a position he held for 12 years. In 1983, he became Principal of RMC, and after he retired became President of the RMC Foundation. He was instrumental in merging Region 7 of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) with the Canadian Society of Electrical and Computer Engineering to for IEEE (Canada) and also served as President of the Engineering Institute of Canada. He briefly describes the Camp of Seven Wardens that co-ordinates Iron Ring Ceremonies across Canada and the basis of Kipling's poem "The Sons of Martha".