Alex Barbour
	
Alex Barbour was born in Dundee, Scotland. He was an apprentice millwright and graduated in Marine Engineering from Dundee Technical College, now the University of Aberty.  He went to sea with Ben Line Steamers Ltd. and earned his First Class Steam Certificate. He migrated to Canada in 1964 with a young family and taught marine engineering at George Brown College in Toronto. He became the Head of the Marine Engineering Department. He joined Parks Canada in 1973 and specialized in the preservation and restoration of historic ships and industrial machinery. He rose to the position of Senior Engineer, Machines and Vessels. The heritage conservation program was transferred to the Department of Public Works in 1986, and Alex served as Chief Engineer of the Marine and Industrial Conservation unit. He retired in 1996 and established a private consulting business.(("Alex Barbour: 2003 General Tools Award Recipient." Society for Industrial Archaeology Newsletter. Vol. 32, No.4, 2003: 5.)) \\

In 1996, Alex Barbour and Kathleen Murphy were part of a team sent to inspect the gantry on Dawson’s Dredge No. 4. They intended to prepare the specifications for dismantling it but arrived to find the gantry already in a state of collapse. They did emergency stabilization work without the usual government protocol.((Kathleen Murphy and Alex Barbour, “Dances with Wires: An Unusual Rigging Project.” San Francisco Maritime National Park Association, 2019 website: https://maritime.org/conf/conf-murphy.htm)) Barbour was interested in the potential for interpretation at the dredging company's base at Bear Creek, near Dawson.((Alex Barbour, John D. Light, and Peter J. Priest, "An assessment of the interpretation potential of the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation’s depot at Bear Creek, Yukon Territory." Ottawa, Environment Canada, Canadian Parks Service, 1986.))

In 2003, Barbour was awarded the Society for Industrial Archaeology General Tools Award for Distinguished Service. The award is given to those who have given sustained distinguished service to the cause of industrial archaeology. Barbour achieved a wide recognition of his expertise in machinery restoration, millwrighting, and marine engineering.(("Alex Barbour: 2003 General Tools Award Recipient." //Society for Industrial Archaeology Newsletter,// Vol. 32, No. 4, 2003: 5.))