Memorable Manitobans: Charles Henry Dahl (1888-1953)

Civil servant.

Born at Appleton, Minnesota on 12 February 1888, he most of his childhood in the logging town of Marinette, Wisconsin. After leaving high school, he attended the Oshkosh Teachers' College and taught for five years as the Principal of a high school in a small Wisconsin town before enrolling at the University of Wisconsin. He graduated with a BA degree in 1917 and became a railway investigator in Wisconsin. In 1919, he left the position to move to Winnipeg.

He worked as a statistician with the Winnipeg Electric Company and was its transportation chief from 1930 until it was succeeded by the Winnipeg Transit Commission in 1953. He pioneered the introduction of trolley buses to Winnipeg and was known internationally as an authority on municipal transportation systems. He was a member of the Winnipeg Town Planning Commission, an executive of the Metropolitan Plan and the Winnipeg Advisory Traffic Commission.

In 1914, he married Leona Lucille Lewis (1896-1983, daughter of Delia Block and John Lewis) at Rhinelander, Wisconsin and they had six children: Dorothy Dahl (wife of Robert O. Flett), Florence Dahl (1922-?, wife of John D. Mahon), Carol Dahl (?-2004, wife of Leonard Anthony Sandeman), Lewis Dahl, Lawrence Dahl, and John Dahl. He was President of the Winnipeg Lions Club, Manitoba Motor League, Greenwood Lawn Bowling Club, Isaac Brock Home and School Association, and Wolseley Home and School Association. He served on the executive of the Motor Country Club and was a member of the Masons and Knox United Church.

He died at the Winnipeg General Hospital on 3 October 1953. He was buried at Marinette, Wisconsin.

Sources:

Birth registration [Florence Leona Dahl], Manitoba Vital Statistics.

“C. H. Dahl, transit official dies,” Winnipeg Free Press, 5 October 1953.

Obituary [Leona Hayes], Winnipeg Free Press, 4 November 1983, page 45.

Obituary [Carol Ethelyn Sandeman], Winnipeg Free Press, 18 December 2004.

Obituary [Florence Mahon], Winnipeg Free Press, 20 August 2008.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 16 December 2022

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

This is a collection of noteworthy Manitobans from the past, compiled by the Manitoba Historical Society. We acknowledge that the collection contains both reputable and disreputable people. All are worth remembering as a lesson to future generations.

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