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Fred Markhauser - Born October 26, 1945 in Opdal, Norway, to a Norwegian mother and German
father. My parents met while
my father was stationed there during the war. Moved to my father's hometown in Holtzkirchen, Bavaria,
Germany in 1946. Moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1953.
Attended primary school and 1st year high school in Montreal (1953 - 1960)
Attended grades 9, 10, and 11 at Chateauguay High School (1960 - 1963)
What have I done since?
In 1963/64 I attended Radio College of Canada, where I received a diploma in Radio and Television
technology. I then worked for Marconi (twice) and RCA (also twice) between 1964 and 1969. One of these
jobs was in Midland, Ontario by the Georgian Bay, a wonderful place for the outdoor life. I met my wife
Tanis in 1968, during my second stint at RCA in Montreal. In 1969 I entered Sir George Williams
University, and earned a bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering in 1972.
Between 1972 and 1980 I worked at the Canadian Overseas Telecommunications Corporation (now called
Teleglobe), CBC Engineering Headquarters (Montreal), and Spar Technology Inc. (Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue).
At CBC I spent a lot of time in the Rocky Mountains and valleys, looking for sites to install new television
rebroadcasting stations. With Spar I worked in the satellite communications business and spent a lot of
time in Canada's far north - places like Arctic Bay on the northern end of Baffin Island (Inuit community),
Tuktoyaktuk (Oil Field), and Contwoyto Lake (Gold Mine). I've experienced the midnight sun in June, and
the 24-hour darkness in December. I've encountered the Musk Ox, Polar Bear, Caribou, and Wolf in the
wild. I've seen the Beluga Whale and Arctic Char in Hudson's Bay. These are experiences that I'll never
regret or forget. Also with Spar, I spent a month in Haiti, overseeing the commissioning of a Television
Studio and Broadcast Station for "Baby Doc" Duvalier. While there, I was witness to a genuine voodoo
ceremony on Ile de la Gonave - an island in the centre of Haiti's horseshoe bay. The island people have
gone totally back to nature, with grass huts, washing by streams, cattle herding, scratch farming – and
voodoo. The ceremony starts in the evening with low chants and drum beats, then it slowly builds until the
drums and voices drown out everything else. Then the drums stop and the chants slowly subside. It's an
impressive event.
Tanis and I were married in 1974. Our son Erik was born in 1976, our daughter Paula in 1979. In 1980 I
joined Telesat and moved to Ottawa, where we've been ever since. With Telesat, I've had the pleasure to
work on quite a few interesting satellite-related projects, including the development of digital video
compression systems that are used by Expressvu on our Nimiq satellite and by Star Choice on our Anik
F1. Currently I'm working on satellite access to the Internet for schools. With Telesat I've also been able to
continue to travel to Canada's far north, as well as the rest of North America and several excursions to
Europe.
There it is - my life in three paragraphs. Is the real me there somewhere?
Who knows?