Article

William Howard Rapson

Published Online September 27, 2007

Last Edited December 15, 2013

William Howard Rapson, chemical engineer, professor, consultant (b at Toronto 15 Sept 1912). After 12 years of research at the Canadian International Paper Co, Hawkesbury, Ont, he returned to U of T, where he had received his doctorate in chemical engineering in 1941.

Rapson, William Howard

William Howard Rapson, chemical engineer, professor, consultant (b at Toronto 15 Sept 1912). After 12 years of research at the Canadian International Paper Co, Hawkesbury, Ont, he returned to U of T, 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.

He also invented processes for the manufacturing industry. In recent years he turned his attention to the amelioration of water pollution by wood pulp mills. A fellow of the RSC and honorary fellow, and former president (1986) of the Chemical Institute of Canada, he has been honoured in Canada and abroad. In 1986 he received the Canada Council's Isaak Walton Killam Memorial Prize in Engineering.