Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Dr. Alexander Forbes (1882- 1965) was born in Milton, Massachusets. He was educated at Milton Academy, Milton and Harvard University , Cambridge Massachusets. Forbes began his career as a physiolgy at Harvard University School of Medicine in 1911, becomming Associate proffesser in 1921, Professer in 1936, and after his retirement in 1948, professer Emeritus. While at Harvard Medical School, Forbes at the suggestion of Dr.Grenfell began to carry out surveys of the Labrador Coast. Forbes was interested in aviation and over a period of 5 years, starting in 1931, conducted aerial surveys of Labrador. He spent the summer of 1931 leading a 16 member amateur crew aboard his 97-foot schooner, Ramah. Two seaplanes based on the schooner were used to take aerial photographs. Supplementry aerial mapping was done in 1932 and 1935, although Dr. Forbes was not able to attend these exbiditions in 1932. The results of his work were a contour map of the Labrador Penisula from Nachvak north to Cape Chidley, and a summery of his work in Northern most Labrador mapped from the air in 1938. These maps were published after further years of work done by the American Geographical Society, based entirely on the aerial photographs obtained on Forbes expeditions. Dr. Forbes served as a leiutenant in the U.S. Navy during World War II. During the summer of 1941 he served as a technical advisor and played an important role in the selection of the site of Goose Bay Airport, as well as Crystal I Airport. In Autumn of 1941, Forbes guided a convoy of three supply ships in stormy weather to Fort Chimo, thus aiding the construction of an airfeild there. He was also involved in choosing and developing an airport site at Frobisher Bay and in 1946 took part in the U.S. Navy project to explode an atomic bomb at Bikini Lagoon in the Pacific. Later in 1946 he retiredfrom the Navy holding the Rank of Captain.