thumb|The Iceberg sculpture by Bill Lishman at the [[Canadian Museum of Nature, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada]]

William Lishman (February 12, 1939 – December 30, 2017) was a Canadian sculptor, filmmaker, inventor, naturalist and public speaker, president of William Lishman & Associates Limited, Vice President of Paula Lishman Limited and Chair Emeritus of Operation Migration Inc. Described by the Toronto Star as a "dyslexic, colour-blind, wildly creative sculptor", he died less than two weeks after being diagnosed with leukemia.

Aviation

Lishman was one of the pioneers of ultra-light aviation in Canada, and was the first Canadian to foot-launch and land a rigid-winged aircraft. In 1988, he became the first person to lead a flight of geese with an aircraft, and in 1993, the first to conduct an aircraft-led migration of birds.

His first aircraft was built in 1976, a combination of an Easy Riser hang-glider, a go-kart engine, and a propeller.

Work with geese

In the late 1980s, Lishman approached Bill Carrick, a naturalist who was working on imprinting on the behaviour of geese. Carrick provided goslings, who Bill and his children worked with daily, eventually doing twice-daily runs on a motorcycle with the geese flying with him, then switching to the ultra-light.

Lishman is also credited with inspiring the Jacques Perrin film Winged Migration.

Operation Migration

In 1994 he co-founded Operation Migration, Inc., and was its Chairperson until 2005. With Operation Migration he flew numerous migrations with geese and cranes, and in 2000 did the major path-finding for the route that has been used to establish the migration of the Whooping Crane between Wisconsin and Florida.

Lishman adopted eight sandhill cranes in spring 1995. Each had to be exercised, separately, for three hours daily, by a person wearing a crane puppet. Unlike the geese, if the cranes imprinted on a human, they would attack their own kind.

Lishman did little flying after 2007. In the Christmas 2015 report, he provided this update. "Working with David Woodhouse we continued on re working my Rescue Trike for the project I call Air First Aid Basically we built a new aircraft and used a few parts from the old one. Unfortunately my concept for using this type of aircraft for disaster relief still has not got off the ground but I keep gnawing a way forward with it. With that said I have lost my passion for flying and this year my total time in the air can only be measured in minutes. When I was flying with birds or photographing the Oak Ridge Moraine there was purpose to my flight but now they are both done. While I love the freedom and the spectacular visuals it is now a case of bin der and dun dat. Any one have idea what I can do with 3 perfectly good ultralight aircraft?"

Artist

thumb|Lishman's Wilde Beast sculpture at the Wild Beast roller coaster, [[Canada's Wonderland theme park.]]

Lishman's career as a sculptor began in 1962. He became known for repurposing metal from existing items; a 1969 exhibition profile cites "It Could Have Gone Up" as including "a long slab of rusted metal which had once been part of an ancient threshing machine." The natural rust on his works were said to be "totally unlike man-made effects."

In 1966, he learned from craftsmen in a Mexican metalworking shop. , the sculptures remain at the park.

In 2015, his stainless steel iceberg sculpture was installed at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa.

Writing

In 2015 Lishman produced and self-published a coffee table book highlighting views of the Oak Ridges Moraine from Above which was its title. In December 2015, he wrote about this project. "We had the book launch here in the underground house on Earth Day April 22 and it all worked I have had great feed back on the book – And as of this date out of the 500 printed there are only about 50 left." They married in 1968.

Starting in 2015, Lishman and his wife began to share a rented home near Oaxaca, Mexico with another couple for six weeks in the winter.

The resulting 2,600 square foot structure, described as an "underground home with igloo-like domes ... overlooking the Purple Woods valley and Lake Scugog", for the viper's bugloss plants, which would flower each summer, on the over 1000 tonnes of earth covering the house. This design was noted for its energy efficiency; because cold air is heavier than warm air, the chest-style configuration prevented cold air from "spilling" out as it does with traditional vertical doors.

  • Rescue Trike: Under his "Air First Aid" initiative, Lishman developed a specialized ultralight aircraft (or "trike") intended for disaster relief. The aircraft was designed to carry a 90-kilogram payload in a sled-shaped pod, allowing pilots to deliver food and medical supplies to remote areas by skimming low to the ground and releasing the pod at low speeds to minimize impact.
  • Ferrocement Dome Construction: Lishman pioneered a "mole-hill" method of underground architecture to build his home, "Purple Hill." He used custom-welded rebar trusses to form igloo-like domes, which were covered in metal lath and sprayed with shotcrete before being buried under 1,000 tonnes of earth. This method provided natural climate control and protection from extreme weather.
  • Rigid-Wing Ultralight: In 1978, Lishman became the first Canadian to successfully foot-launch and land a powered rigid-wing aircraft. He modified an "Easy Riser" hang-glider by adding a go-kart engine and a hand-carved wooden propeller, a precursor to the aircraft later used to lead bird migrations.

Death and legacy

Lishman died at his home and his son Aaron said that "his passing was peaceful, surrounded by family and friends. Thankfully he did not suffer long." The cause of death was not stated by the family. A Book of Memories was provided to the family by the Newcastle Funeral Home. "Most people that lived anywhere near him will remember him flying over with a flock of geese behind him. That was a common sight in the late eighties and early nineties. He'll be remembered for a lot of different things but mostly for being an innovator and someone who wasn't afraid to try new things", Aaron Lishman added.

In 2013, Lishman described himself as essentially a sculptor in an interview. "I got fired from everything else ... I wanted to be a pilot but I'm colour blind and dyslexic. The air force didn't want me to be a pilot. I'd be deadly."