McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Person
Pitts, Gordon McL. (Gordon McLeod), 1886-1954
1886-1954
Gordon Mcleod Pitts was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, in 1886. He worked as a railway engineer prior to obtaining his B.Sc. in 1908 and his M.Sc. in 1909 from McGill University. He taught Civil Engineering at McGill from 1908 to 1910, and again from 1915 to 1916 at which time McGill granted him the degree of B.Arch. He joined the Montreal architectural firm of Edward and W.S. Maxwell in 1919, and four years later formed the partnership of Maxwell and Pitts. Pitts thereafter became one of the Canada’s foremost architects, being elected President of both, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and the Province of Quebec Association of Architects. The McGill Graduates’ Society, in which Pitts participated actively, chose him as its President in 1940. In 1942 he became a member of McGill’s Board of Governors, and he was later chosen to represent the University on the Montreal City Council. As a councillor, Pitts worked actively in committees, contributing particularly in the area of traffic improvement and town planning. He rose to the position of Vice-Chairman of Montreal’s executive committee. He died in 1954.