Victor Himmelfarb was born on November 7th, 1909, to Jacob Himmelfarb and Annie Himmelfarb, who were both from Poland. Born and raised in Toronto, Himmelfarb received education at Ogden Public School and Jarvis Collegiate. After apprenticing as a pharmacist for two years, he went to the Ontario College of Pharmacy in 1931 and graduated two years later. After graduation, Himmelfarb found a job as a pharmacist on Queen Street near Spadina while at the same time paying close attention to world politics and conflicts. Aiming to get into the war and cracking against Hitler and fascism, Himmelfarb went by himself from Toronto to Spain in 1937. He travelled by way of France, from where he marched over the Pyrenees Mountains into a town of Figueras, and went through Valencia and Barcelona up to Albacete, where the headquarters of the International Brigades was located. He joined the International Brigades as a pharmacist, serving in several hospitals in different localities and finally wound up as a lieutenant.
Himmelfarb left Spain in January of 1939, travelling back to Canada with the Canadian representative and was interviewed by Gregory Clark on the way from Halifax to Toronto. During the Second World War, he worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs for over five years. Himmelfarb later joined the Mackenzie Papineau Veterans Association in Toronto.
He passed away in 1985.
Jeanette “Jan” Alwyn Houghton nee Joyce (1924-2015) was a graduate of the Hamilton General Hospital School of Nursing Class of 1946B. She helped organize reunions and was the official class representative with the Hamilton Civic Hospitals Nursing Alumnae Association. Jeanette would act as an "unofficial archivist" for her class.
Louis Backer Jaques was born in Toronto on July 10th, 1911, to Robert Jaques and Ann Bella Shepherd. The middle of three children in a happy warm family, he received his education at Ryerson Public School and then Harbord Collegiate. He attended the University of Toronto and earned a BA in physiology and biochemistry (1932) and a MA in Physiology (1935). After graduation, he went on working in the laboratory of the Department of Physiology, pursuing his Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr. Charles H. Best and completed his doctor’s degree in 1941. in 1937 he received an appointment from Dr. Best as a demonstrator (later instructor) for the mammalian physiology labs for medical students, a teaching position he held till 1946. He was also assigned the lecture program for the dental students in 1940. In 1946, Dr. Jaques moved to the University of Saskatchewan with an appointment as professor and head of the Department of Physiology, a post he held until 1971. Following that he accepted a position as (the first) W.S. Lindsay Professor in the College of Medicine. Upon his retirement in 1979 he was named Professor Emeritus; and in 1981 he was named a lay canon by the Anglican diocese of Saskatoon
A scientist of international reputation, Jaques studied various aspects of blood coagulation and heparin as an anticoagulant. He was among the first to demonstrate the usefulness of heparin and dicumarol in treating thrombosis; to investigate the relation of stress to hemorrhage; and to originate the application of silicone in handling blood coagulation. In 1952 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and in 1977 he was awarded the Heart Foundation of Canada Outstanding Service Award as well as a Certificate of Appreciation by the Canadian Hemophilia Society. He died in Toronto on May 16, 1997.
William Kardash was born in Hafford, Saskatchewa on 10 June 1912. The youngest of nine children of Ukrainian Canadian parents Danylo Kardash and Ulyta Byck, he spent his early years in Saskatchewan and received education at Hafford High School. Interested in politics at a young age, Kardash joined the Communist Party of Canada and become an organizer for the Farmers' Unity League in Saskatchewan and Alberta. During the Spanish Civil War, Kardash served in the Mackenzie-Papineau (Mac-Pap) Battalion of the International Brigades from 1937-1938 and became an officer in command of 5 tanks. He was seriously wounded by shrapnel at the battle of Fuentes de Ebro and lost his right leg eventually. His experiences fighting in Spain was later turned into a pamphlet: I Fought for Canada in Spain.
Returning to Canada in 1938, Kardash moved to Winnipeg the following year and was elected to the Manitoba Legislature in 1941. He served as Winnipeg MLA from 1941 to 1958, as Worker's Candidate at first, then as a representative of the Labor-Progressive Party. In 1948, Kardash became the general manager of the People's Co-operative Dairy, Fuel and Lumber Yards and held this position until his retirement in 1982. He served as president of the board of directors for the co-operative until the business was sold to its employees in 1993, after which he chaired the Co-op Wind-up Committee.
On 27 March 1940, Kardash married Mary Kostaniuk (d.1994), daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Myron Kostaniuk of Winnipeg. They had one son, Teddy Vincent Kardash. Throughout his life, Kardash was active in Winnipeg's Ukrainian community, and, as a member of the Mac-Pap Veterans Association, he campaigned on behalf of the Veterans of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion. After his death in 1997, the Manitoba Legislature held a moment of silence in his honour.
John Leslie King was born July 4th, 1892, in Hornby, Ontario, to his father John Thomas King, and mother Mary Graham. He was the eldest of six children. During high school, King lived with his paternal aunt and her husband John Thomas King in Brampton. In 1910 King enrolled at the University of Toronto (UofT) to acquire his Bachelor of Arts to become a teacher. However, in his second year of the program, King developed a ruptured appendix. During his hospital stay, King was inspired by the work of the medical staff and decided to switch to medicine. King withdrew from the Arts program in late 1912 and took his first year of medicine at the University of Toronto the following year. The First World War broke out in 1914, causing many in UofT’s faculty of medicine to go overseas and, consequently, King’s medical program was accelerated. He and his classmates, one of whom was Frederick Banting, graduated in 1916 instead of the intended 1917.
Following graduation, King did an internship in surgery at the Guelph General Hospital and then took over a general practice in the village of Alton, Ontario, where he practiced for a year. King joined the army in 1918 and travelled to Siberia with the 16th Field Ambulance. Once the war was over, King worked 6 months at the Mayo Clinic before returning to his hometown of Hornby. He then worked for Dr. Marshall E. Gowland in Milton for seven years beginning in 1919 and ended up marrying his boss’ sister-in law, Amanda Partridge, with whom he had one daughter. In 1926, King opened his own general practice in Galt, purchasing it from a Dr. Charlton. In Galt, he was on the staff at both St. Mary’s and Grand River Hospitals. Dr. King died in 1984 at the age of 92 and is buried in Milton, Ontario.
Dr. Arthur (Art) Lesser (1932-2017) was a psychiatrist and a member of McMaster's Department of Psychiatry from 1969-1988.