William Gregor has seen a lot of innovations in the agriculture industry, including many he created.
The 89-year-old Brandon man has spent most of his working life as a welder, machinist and mechanic. Farmers would come to him with ideas and he would get to work.
“The inventing part of it must be in my system somehow or other. I could look at things and make it easier and make it better,” Gregor said.
For his achievements, Gregor was inducted into the Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame this year.
Brian Saunderson, the hall’s president, said Gregor’s work benefited many farmers but he doubted he benefited financially.
“Apparently as stories go, there was no limit to what he wouldn’t do or the extra hours he would spend to help farmers out with problems. And I don’t think he became a rich man for all this,” he said.
Gregor was born on his family’s farm near Roblin in 1926. He enlisted in the Canadian infantry during the Second World War and later attended the Brandon Vocational School.
While working at Frank Lawson and Sons in the 1950s, Gregor was involved with bringing the hydraulic system to Brandon.
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Lawson’s son, Glen, had seen hydraulic systems in use in England during the war. Back in Brandon, the Lawsons started ordering hydraulic systems that Gregor installed into grain trucks to lift the box.
“It was the start of the hydraulic, what might you call hydraulics, that are still there today,” he said.
During the 1950s, Manitoba Hydro was installing electricity on farms in the province. New roads were built and many hydro poles were knocked down.
“The hydro poles were bulldozed down and broke off so I took one of (the hydraulic hoists) and made a machine to put it on and it pulled the hydro poles out of the ground,” he said.
The new system saved Manitoba Hydro money and enabled the company to reuse the poles. Later, other companies began building the systems.
Gregor also had the idea of adding hard surfacing to cultivator shovels to extend their life three- fold.
“(At school) they taught you how to hard surface stuff, they didn’t tell you how to hard surface a shovel.”
He would weld the hard surfacing onto the shovels to make them more durable. During the winter, he taught farmers how to do it themselves.
During the 1980s, Gregor made a grain box that would not leak. He designed hinges for the end gates that would help hold the grain inside the steel boxes.
“The end gates I built were like full proof, in other words they would even hold water,” he said.
In retirement, Gregor continues to work on innovations and projects at his nephew’s trucking shop.
