Other Software and Data

Most GIS professionals will recognize Roger Tomlinson as the 'Father of GIS." But how did he come to be known as that? A serendipitous meeting on a Spartan Air Services flight would pave the way for what would become the Canadian Geographic Information System, launched in the early 1960s. The system was born out of pure necessity, as manual methods to do the work were much too costly. The first sentence of the Abstract from his 1974 thesis (attached), which was surprisingly for a doctorate in Philosophy, sums up the objective nicely:

Manual and computer-aided techniques for handling location-specific data are viewed, not in terms of their ability to produce maps, but in the broader role of storing, manipulating, and displaying such data.

Today's GIS fits this description perfectly, as location data is interwoven with other data sources to derive insights that are not obvious without a spatial component. Location Intelligence as it has been termed is now part of analytics across enterprises and the public sector.

Tomlinson went on to serve in many important capacities related to the science of GIS. He was Chairman of the International Geographical Union GIS Commission for 12 years. He pioneered the concepts of worldwide geographical data availability as Chairman of the IGU Global Database Planning Project in 1988. He was also a president of the Canadian Association of Geographers. 

His 2003 book, Thinking About GIS: Geographic Information System Planning for Managers, is essential for anyone leading a GIS function.

Tomlinson died in 2014. Here are several links if you want to explore his impact further:

• Thinking About GIS: Geographic Information System Planning for Managers https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-About-GIS-Geographic-Information/dp/1589482735
• Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Tomlinson
• His thesis on GIS is attached to this post, but here is a succinct article describing it. http://spatial.ly/2017/07/roger-tomlinsons-phd-the-first-in-gis/
• Obituary containing a very nice summary of his life and contributions to geography: https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/roger-tomlinson-the-father-of-computerized-cartography/article17185506/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&

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Tomlinson_Thesis.pdf   11.01 MB 1 version

Roger was a very stately gentleman. He was very tall and always presented himself in a formal manner. I used to see him when I attended the Esri Users Conference and he would come out and join the group that ran the 5K. He wouldn't run as he was elderly at the time, but he would walk with the runners. His presentation style was very deliberate and he had a keen wit.

Dr. Tomlinson was a native of Cambridge (England) and prior to attending university, he served in the Royal Air Force from 1951–1954 as a pilot and flying officer.

After his military service, Dr. Tomlinson attended the University of Nottingham and Acadia University for two separate undergraduate degrees in geography and geology, respectively. He received a master's degree in geography from McGill University where he specialised in the glacial geomorphology of Labrador. His Doctoral thesis at University College London was titled: The application of electronic computing methods and techniques to the storage, compilation, and assessment of mapped data.

Dr. Tomlinson's early career included serving as an assistant professor at Acadia, working as the manager of the computer mapping division at Spartan Air Services in Ottawa, Ontario (following his studies at McGill), and work with the Government of Canada first as a consultant and later as a director of regional planning systems with the Department of Forestry and Rural Development.

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