Accession N-2006-008 - Robert S. Pilot collection

Robert 'Bob' Sheffield Pilot was born in Nicholson, Ontario on April 13, 1934. Raised in Pembroke, Ontario, he entered training in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1952. The following year he was posted to Frobisher Bay, launching a 35 year career of service in the north. As an RCMP Constable, he served in several eastern Arctic communities, including Frobisher Bay (1953-1955), Craig Harbour (1955-1956) and Grise Fiord (1956-1959). In 1959-1960 he was posted to Windsor, Ontario, where he married Lois Alsford (1962). He returned to the north to Pond Inlet as an RCMP Corporal (1961-1964), where he also established a Boy Scouts troop, and became a founding member of the NWT Council of the Boy Scouts of Canada. In Pond Inlet Bob Pilot performed many services as a paramedic: delivering babies, pulling teeth and handling gunshot wounds. In 1964 he was posted to Fort Providence as a Corporal. That year Pilot was also awarded the rank of Serving Brother in the Order of St. John of Jerusalem by Queen Elizabeth for his medical work in the Arctic (he is now a Knight of the Order). He retired from the RCMP and attended Northern University from 1965-66, and then joined the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs in Broughton Island as an Area Administrator from 1966-1968. He was then Area Administrator in Pond Inlet from 1968-1969. He joined the Government of the Northwest Territories in 1969, and was Assistant Regional Director in Fort Smith. From 1971-1975 he was Regional Director in Frobisher Bay. From 1975-1979 he was the Senior Executive Assistant to Commissioner Hodgson in Yellowknife. From 1979-1984 he was appointed to Deputy Commissioner under Commissioner Parker. In 1984-1986 Pilot was appointed as the first Deputy Minister of the Executive Council, and in 1986 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs in Ottawa. In that same year Pilot was made a Member of the Order of Canada. He retired from the GNWT in 1988. Robert Pilot was mayor of Pembroke, Ontario from 2000-2003 and has continued to be involved in many service organizations including the United Way, the Kiwanis Club, the Pembroke Regional Hospital and the Ottawa Valley Historical Society.