Roger Frank Tomlinson OC

Roger Frank Tomlinson OC 17 November 1933–7 February 2014 Source: Reproduced with kind permission from the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science Roger Tomlinson was universally acknowledged as the father of ‘Geographical Information Systems’ (GIS). The scale of his achievement is demonstrated by the growth of a multibillion dollar global GIS industry, the advent of universal location-based services on mobile phones and the growth of Geographic Information Science in the academic community. Given all that (and more), he must rank as one of the towering figures in Geography worldwide over the last half century. Roger was born in Newmarket (Cambridgeshire) and spent the period from 1951 to 1954 on military service in the RAF. He then became a Geography undergraduate at Nottingham University and, on moving to Canada, a Geology undergraduate at Acadia University. From there he obtained a Masters Degree at McGill University on the glacial geomorphology of Labrador. Though he was for a time an Assistant Professor at Arcadia, he was never destined to be a traditional academic. Rather Roger worked in a number of roles for businesses like Spartan Air Services (where he started as an air photo-interpreter). His work in automating processes for collecting and analysing geographic information was fired through a project to identify the best locations for a tree plantation in Kenya through overlaying various cultural, economic and environmental variables. Subsequently – and serendipitously through a chance meeting on a 1962 flight with Lee Pratt, the new head of the Canada Land Inventory – he produced a 1963 functional specification for, and went on to build, the Canada Geographic Information System within the Canadian federal government. By any standards this was the first production system aimed at analysing (as well as mapping) geographic information and using a comprehensive set of functionality which is now part of the ‘taken for granted’ world. It was also an early example of multi-disciplinary work, with Roger leading a team of computer scientists, surveyors, land use specialists, civil servants and others. In 1963, Roger had set up his own consultancy organisation and from the early 1970s travelled the world advising governments, commercial and not-for-profit bodies on GIS. From the outset he knew that the case for any such system had to be founded on a sound business case, and an understanding of the mechanics of organisations and programme management tools and skills. The roll-call of his consultancies in North America alone is impressive: the World Bank, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the US Departments of Commerce and Agriculture, US Geological Survey, US Forest Service, US Bureau of the Census, the Canadian Forest Service, and numerous US state and Canadian provincial and municipal government agencies. In addition, he carried out similar work in Australia and many parts of Asia as well as in Europe. This, plus his engagement in many international and national conferences, gave him a huge network on which to call for information, advice or a celebration. Roger Tomlinson's success came not only from his background in Geography and his IT experience and expertise. It was strongly influenced by his understanding of the drivers within government and business, his strength in social interactions with people ranging from Heads of State to technicians, a capacity to articulate concepts in a way which made sense to non-experts, the ability to lead teams drawn from disparate disciplines and a belief in strong and visible leadership. He refused to take no for an answer when dealing with governments. An extraordinary physical presence, standing 2.02m tall and being built wholly in proportion, plus his gravitas, certainly helped persuade. But his charm and total commitment to exploiting GIS for beneficial ends endeared him to thousands of admirers and friends. Roger never wrote a significant number of academic papers. Much of what he wrote survives in the grey literature, notably his early feasibility studies and papers on GIS (see ‘Selected publications’). That said, his very practical book Thinking about GIS: Geographic Information Systems planning for managers ran to five editions and Russian, Polish, Spanish and Chinese translations followed. It served as the ‘how to’ guide for thousands of GIS implementations across the world. Despite his flourishing consultancy, Roger Tomlinson took on many non-commercial roles for Geography and geographers. For example, he chaired the International Geographical Union's GIS Commission for 12 years. He was also President of the Canadian Association of Geographers and recipient of their rare award for service to the profession. Roger's academic and public-orientated achievements were recognised by a large range of organisations. He was made a Member of the Order of Canada (CM) – the Canadian government's highest civilian award – in 2001 and was promoted to Officer (OC) in 2013. The citation for the former included ‘he pioneered its [GIS's] uses worldwide to collect, manage, and manipulate geographical data, changing the face of geography as a discipline’. Other awards included being made an Honorary Fellow of the RGS-IBG and was recipient of its Murchison Award; the Gold Medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society; the Alexander Graham Bell Medal of the National Geographic Society (together with Jack Dangermond). The Association of American Geographers awarded him the James R. Anderson Medal of Honor for Applied Geography in 1995 and he was the first recipient of the Robert T. Aangeenbrug Distinguished Career Award in 2005. He was also the first recipient of the Esri Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. Acadia, Lethbridge, McGill and Nottingham universities bestowed Honorary doctorates on him and UCL (where he gained his PhD) made him an Honorary Fellow. He loved being with friends but also meeting new (preferably young and enthusiastic) people; nothing gave him more pleasure than giving out the Special Achievement in GIS Awards in front of the 14 000 participants at the Esri User Conference every year. He was immensely loyal to friends. His love of good food, wine, conversation and good company was legendary. I first met him in 1971 and we enjoyed many happy occasions together in a variety of geographical milieus. Roger Tomlinson died in his house in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico with his wife Lila present. He is survived by Lila, his three children and four grandchildren

Art · Geographic Information Systems Studies