Former Petro-Canada President Funeral Set For Nov. 21

A funeral service will be held Tues. Nov. 21 for Edward Lakusta, a former president and chief operating officer of Petro-Canada who died Wednesday.

Born in Opal, Alberta in 1930, Lakusta began his oilpatch career with British America Petroleum  before studying petroleum engineering at Mount Royal College in Calgary and then the University of Oklahoma where he graduated in 1955 with a  bachelor of science degree in petroleum engineering.

By 1976, Lakusta had risen to the position of manager of production at Gulf Canada and was in charge of drilling, production, and heavy oil. His career at Gulf spanned 30 years and took him to Houston, Texas, where he was promoted to senior vice-president in charge of manufacturing.

In June 1982, Lakusta was named president and chief operating officer of Petro-Canada. During his three years at the company, he oversaw the integration of Gulf Canada's downstream operations into Petro-Canada. "He was clearly the leader who made the transformation of the Petro-Canada brand to a respected and much appreciated petroleum company,” wrote one of Lakusta’s nominators to the Canadian Hall of Fame into which he was inducted in 2006.

Lakusta also was instrumental in the company’s involvement in the Olympic torch relay across Canada in advance of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

The funeral service will held at 2 p.m. in the chapel of Eden Brook Funeral Home, 22423, Township Road 242 in Calgary.

Dear user, please be aware that we use cookies to help users navigate our website content and to help us understand how we can improve the user experience. If you have ideas for how we can improve our services, we’d love to hear from you. Click here to email us. By continuing to browse you agree to our use of cookies. Please see our Privacy & Cookie Usage Policy to learn more.