John Richardson Fitzpatrick (March 21, 1907 – July 9, 1989) was a Canadian athlete who competed in the 1928 Summer Olympics.

[4] After serving briefly with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, he went on to work at Shell Canada researching diesel engines and fuels.

In the early 1960s, Fitzpatrick worked for the Ontario's Ministry of Highways, rising to the position of deputy chief of the equipment section.

[1] In 1930, he won Canada's first medal at the inaugural 1930 British Empire Games held in Hamilton.

[9][11] While serving at the Ministry of Transportation in Ontario in the 1970s, John Fitzpatrick devised a bubbling system used in the St. Lawrence River to prevent ice from forming in the winter.

The invention pumps compressed air through a network of perforated pipes at the river bottom that run between the docks and along the routes of the ferries.