John Albert Ireland, P.Eng., FEC

Member of the Order of Honour, 2026 | Thousand Islands Chapter

One of the longest continually serving executive directors of the Thousand Islands Chapter, John Ireland is a committed volunteer who has made significant contributions to community engagement, education outreach and inclusion in engineering.

John, a licence holder since 1981, has always encouraged others to get involved, both in engineering and in volunteering. Over the last 25 years, he has served in many committee and chapter executive roles, including stints as chair, vice chair, Secretary, treasurer, education outreach coordinator and webmaster, sometimes fulfilling multiple roles simultaneously. 

In education outreach, John co-designed and constructed PEO's first portable standard platform for testing of popsicle stick bridges. He and his son Alex, now also a P.Eng. and chapter board member, developed a load-cell PC interface to improve function and demonstration of his bridge testing machine, BUSTER! After trial and development, John created a second BUSTER! unit to loan to other chapters. With the help of his wife Elaine, a teacher, John developed a National Engineering Month program with local schools that reaches more than 1000 students in 15 schools each year—and has continued for more than 20 years.

John spearheaded the chapter’s four-year community outreach project, a replica Sons of Martha cairn in Merrickville, to honour the centennial of the iron ring ceremony. Along with advocating for funding and helping research the original 100-year-old stone cairn, John collaborated with community stakeholders. He designed and fabricated the steel structure for the cairn, helped quarry the stone, developed the accompanying interpretative storyboard and arranged the trades to complete the masonry and bronze plaques.

John remains a committed volunteer and a strong advocate for inclusivity in engineering education, licensure and regulation.