Gerhard Charles “Carl” Friesen (1952 – 2022)
Carl Friesen was born in Morden, Manitoba.1) He started work as a summer chainman in land surveying with his uncle James Sharpe at Underhill & Underhill in 1971. Sharpe was a partner in the company.2) Carl received his B.Sc from the University of Calgary in 1987 and was immediately certified as a Canada Land Surveyor after articling under William Grigor Robinson.3)
Carl Freisen bought a partnership in Underhill & Underhill in 1989. In the 1990s Underhill lost a million dollars on a contract with BC Hydro to convert paper files to a digital system. They completed the project but it almost ruined the company. Work related to the Yukon Land Claim surveys saved the company starting in the mid-1980s. Underhill won over half of the contracts and also worked on claim surveys in Nunavut and NWT.4)
In 2018, two Yukoners, Carl Friesen and Diane Strand, were named to the board that recommends people for position in the Canadian Senate.5) Carl was a director and president of the Association of Canadian Land Surveyors between 2001 and 2005. He was a long-standing member of Engineers Yukon and was president from 2011 to 2013. He was made a Fellow of Engineers Canada in 2014.6)