User:Rowei99/François Rousseau (Engineer)

François Rousseau (17th of October 1904 - 1975 ) was a Quebecois civil engineer. Specializing in hydroelectricity, Rousseau participated in many of the major construction projects undertaken by Hydro Quebec during his 20 year long public sector career. After moving to the private sector, he helped design the Churchill Falls damn, and the James Bay Project. Described as a man gifted with "a rare energy and a fertile imagination," Rousseau helped paved the way for many Quebecois engineers.

Biography
Born on the 17th of October 1904, he completed primary school at Jean-Jacques Olier in Montreal. He would continue his studies at Polytechnique Montréal. As summer work, Rousseau would become a lineman, along with his brother Jacques, for his fathers company: Electrical Manufacturing. In 1927 he would receive his Civil Engineering Degree from the renowned international university, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located near Boston. From 1927 to 1943 he worked as an engineer at the Dufresne Construction Company.

His first worksite would be the construction of the substructure of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge. Work on the bridge lasted two and a half years and was completed close to a year and a half before schedule, all without interrupting the flow of the river. The bridge would be opened for use in 1930.

Hired by Hydro-Quebec in 1948, Rousseau had a successful career, becoming chief engineer during the productive years of the 60s. He would become the "driving force" of the major works projects of the 50s and 60s, like generating stations Bersimis-1 and 2 and the Carillon hydroelectric generating station.