Deaths

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Dr. Robert Gourdeau, a CMA past president, died in Ottawa May 3, 2001. He was 80. A 1944 graduate of Université Laval, Dr. Gourdeau saw wartime service in the medical corps before establishing a family practice in St. Quentin, NB, in 1947. Six years later he moved to Montreal to specialize in pediatrics and hematology. His career then took him to McGill, where he was an associate professor of pediatrics, and to Centre Hospitalier universitaire de Laval, where he established and headed the Department of Pediatrics until being named the hospital's medical director in 1976. He is also a former head of pediatrics and continuing medical education at Université Laval. From 1980 to 1986 he was director of fellowship affairs for the Royal College in Ottawa.

Dr. Gourdeau, who held the CMA presidency in 1977/78, was put through medical school by his parish priest in Quebec City. “He told me that I could pay him back when I got my MD,” Dr. Gourdeau said in a 1986 interview in CMAJ. In the interview he recalled his first practice in New Brunswick, where he was 100 km from the nearest hospital and the pay was $8000 a year.

He was part of the now-disappearing generation of physicians that practised before and after the introduction of medicare. In a 1978 speech to the Association of Life Insurance Directors of America, he spoke, somewhat uneasily, of the direction he thought medicine was heading: “The patient–doctor relationship should be one where a certain intimacy is created. [Today], dispensation of care and health services often compares itself more easily to an efficient industrial production enterprise than to an affective human organization. And if consumers of medical care often have the impression of being anonymous numbers, if they feel that they are treated as stomachs, backs and ears instead of as human beings, it is partly because the dispensers of that care often adopt a very neutral attitude that is [the antithesis] of warm comprehension, sympathy and empathy.” He is survived by his wife, Marie-Claire Poirier, and daughter Diane.

Brand, H. Maurice, Cumberland, BC; University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (England), 1947; MCFP; medical officer, RAF; former public health officer, Athabasca, Alta.; chief, general practice, Misericordia Hospital; part-time staff, Misericordia and Edmonton General hospitals; assistant clinical professor, Department of Community Medicine, University of Alberta. Died Apr. 14, 2001, aged 76; survived by his wife, Dodie, and 2 daughters. His wife told the Edmonton Journal: “Because it wasn't much of a challenge to be a doctor in the RAF among the healthiest men in Britain, he applied for jet-pilot training. They were doing testing on the effects of G-forces and decompression on the body.” He was also an actor of note in Edmonton: “He had the voice, he had the diction and he had the pronunciation,” said Ron Wigmore. “It was a joy to watch him on stage.”

Campbell, Donald D., Hamilton, Ont.; University of Manitoba, 1934; general surgery; FRCS(Ed.), FRCSC; No. 2 Casualty Clearing Station, RCAMC, WW II; former staff, Hamilton General, Henderson and Chedoke hospitals; member, McGregor Clinic. Died May 1, 2001, aged 90; survived by 2 children. His obituary stated: “The forest was his cathedral and he bore a lifetime commitment to the renewal and preservation of our world in its natural state. His love of nature and profound knowledge of the natural world he imparted to all who came within his sphere, and his affinity to trees was legendary.”

Dewhurst, William G., Edmonton; Oxford University (England), 1950; psychiatry; MRCP(Lond.), DPM (Lond.) , FRCPsy, FAPA, FACPsy, FAPPA, FRCPC; former staff, professor and chair, Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta Hospitals; consulting psychiatrist, Edmonton General and Royal Alexandra hospitals; professor and chair, Department of Psychiatry, cofounder and codirector, Neurochemical Research Unit, and director, biochemical laboratory, professor, Faculty of Medicine, honorary professor, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Alberta; executive secretary, Royal College Test Committee. Died Apr. 28, 2001, aged 74; survived by his wife, Margaret, and children Dr. Timothy and Susan.

Jamieson, Thomas A., Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.; University of Toronto, 1942; former physician, Shaw Festival. Died Apr. 18, 2001, aged 85; survived by 9 children. His obituary stated: “He was an avid runner, completing marathons in London, Paris, Moscow and Athens.”

Lundell, Frederick W., Mont-Royal, Que.; McGill University, 1951; psychiatry; FRSH, FAPA, FRCPC; former chief, psychiatric services, Centre Hôpital, Côte-des-Neiges; consulting psychiatrist, Montreal Children's Hospital; associate professor, McGill University. Died Mar. 5, 2001, aged 77.

Neweduk, Michael W., Etobicoke, Ont.; University of Western Ontario, 1958; former staff, Department of Family Practice, Etobicoke General Hospital; medical director, Ukrainian Canadian Care Centre. Died Apr. 18, 2001, aged 69.

Schmitt, Nikolaus, Richmond, BC; University of Heidelberg (Germany), 1945; public health; DPH, FCCP, FRCPC, former clinical instructor, Department of Health Care and Epidemiology, University of British Columbia. Died Apr. 14, 2001, aged 83.