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William Howard Rapson, FRSC, chemical engineer, professor, consultant (born 15 September 1912 in Toronto, ON; died 16 March 1997 in Toronto, ON). Rapson has received recognition for contributing to the pulp and paper industry and for his work on chlorine dioxide bleaching. He was made professor emeritus of the University of Toronto in 1981.
Career
After 12 years of research at the Canadian International Paper Company in Hawkesbury, Ontario, William Howard Rapson returned to the University of Toronto, where he had received his doctorate in chemical engineering in 1941. In addition to teaching, research and administration at the university until he retired in 1981, he became consultant on the manufacture and application of chemicals for the pulp and paper industry. From his research came new methods of bleaching wood pulp which enabled pine wood to be used for strong, white paper for the first time and gave Canada important advantages in export trade.
Rapson also invented processes for the manufacturing industry. During his career he turned his attention to the amelioration of water pollution by wood pulp mills.
Honours and Awards
A fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and honorary fellow, and former president (1986) of the Chemical Institute of Canada, William Howard Rapson has been honoured in Canada and abroad. In 1986 he received the Canada Council's Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Prize in Engineering. (See also Izaak Walton Killam.) Rapson was also the recipient of honorary doctorates from the University of Waterloo, McGill University and the University of Guelph.
