Canadian Rocket Society

From The Space Library

In 1942 a group of enthusiasts, including Hillel Diamond, a music student at the University of Toronto, created The Canadian Rocket Society (CRS) which was modeled on the German VfR. After the war Kurt Richard Stehling returned to Toronto where he soon became president and founder of The University of Toronto Rocket Society. In January 1948 Stehling publicly debated senior members of the Canadian astronomy community about the promise of space flight and suggested that with its wide open spaces Canada should become a leader in long-range rocket experiments. In the spring of 1948 it appears that these two competing societies merged under The Canadian Rocket Society banner.

The CRS displayed designs for their "C-1" moon rocket at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in August 1948. Their model was built by 49-year-old Sam Kernerman in his basement. Kernerman died in 2000 at the age of 101 having lived in a world before the Wright Brothers all the way through to the International Space Station. Other members of the CRS included Captain Edward Cecil Evans Fox (Chair), Kurt Stehling (President), Jack Bird (VP), Boris Duke (VP) and John Wartman (Director) as well as Gordon Patterson, Dean of Aerospace at the University of Toronto.