Douglas White Ambridge | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Douglas White Ambridge

Douglas White Ambridge, engineer, businessman (b at Mexico City, Mexico 5 Jan 1898; d at Toronto 16 Nov 1976).

Douglas White Ambridge

Douglas White Ambridge, engineer, businessman (b at Mexico City, Mexico 5 Jan 1898; d at Toronto 16 Nov 1976). Educated at Lower Canada College and McGill, Ambridge held various positions in the pulp and paper industry in the 1920s and 1930s and helped construct Ontario Paper Co's plant at Baie-Comeau, Québec, 1937. In WWII, as a member of the Production Board and director general of the Naval Shipbuilding Branch in Ottawa, he played a major role in industrial mobilization. He directed the construction of crown-owned Polymer Corp's synthetic rubber plant in Sarnia, Ontario, and was, successively, its VP, president and chairman. In 1946 he was created CBE. He became president of Abitibi Power and Paper 1946, and presided over its recovery and expansion, retiring from the presidency 1963 and from the chairmanship 1967. He was appointed chairman of the Ontario Deposit Insurance Corp in 1967.