William Matthews was born in Saskatchewan in 1912. Moving with his family to California at a young age, he started school in California and stayed there for seven years until his family moved back to Canada. Finishing high school in Calgary in 1932, he found a job as a miner in Sudbury in 1936 while at the same time working with the Worker's Sport Association as an organizer. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Matthews headed for Spain in June,1937 and joined the International Brigades. On arriving at Tarazona, he was sent to Pozo Rubio, an officer's training school of the International Brigades near Albacete to receive military training. During his stay in Pozo Rubio, he took charge of an Anglo-Saxon group, a sniper school with Joe Schoen for a month before going back to Tarazona. He joined the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion in Madrid and later became officially a sergeant, taking charge of the section 36. He was in reserve on the central front before being sent to Valencia on December 31, 1937, fighting in the Battle at Teruel. A month later, he went on and got into actions at Seguro de los Baños and then in the Ebro Offensive until being wounded in his shoulder and arm. Having received treatment at a hospital in Mataro, he was sent to Barcelona in August 1938, and eventually returned to Canada in 1939.
The MERIT (McMaster Education Research, Innovation and Theory) Program is an education services program that has served the Faculty of Health Sciences for more than 45 years. MERIT is dedicated to supporting FHS departments and programs in advancing health professions education scholarship.
Initially led by Victor Neufeld, who was the first head of the earliest iteration of MERIT, known as the Program for Education Development (PED), it supported educational innovation in the School of Medicine. Following Neufeld, there were a number of directors, including Brian Haynes and Jennifer Blake. Between 1987 and 1997, Geoff Norman became director and reassumed the role after a short spell of leadership from Jennifer Blake. He renamed it as the Program for Education Research Development (PERD).
In its various iterations it has, on the one hand, supported and initiated numerous innovations in the health science educational programs, and on the other, has an international reputation for educational research and scholarship. In 2012, Norman was replaced by Harold Reiter. The current Assistant Dean, Jonathan Sherbino, took over in 2017 and the program adopted its current name and vision.
The McMaster Medical Student Council (MMSC) is an elected group of students who organize academic and non-academic events to complement the undergraduate medical program. The MMSC serves the needs of medical students within the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine. Through the formation of interest groups, promotion of volunteer opportunities, and funding of research events, the MMSC strives to provide students the opportunity to explore the many aspects of medicine in order to enhance their overall learning experience. Various MMSC committees are tasked with planning and organizing events such as blood drives, memorials, community fundraisers and volunteer opportunities for students, as well as collecting materials for the School of Medicine yearbook and the MMSC newsletter, The Placebo.
The Health Sciences Archives at McMaster University has a rich history that informally began in 1973. Initially driven by concerns over the lack of official records documenting the development of the McMaster Medical School and the Health Sciences Centre, an appeal was made for relevant material from individuals and departments connected with the Medical School to be “frozen” and stored. The effort to collect these records was formalized in July 1974 with the launch of the McMaster Health Sciences Archives Project, which aimed to collect, preserve, index, record, and make available essential documents such as minutes, correspondence, and articles.
In October 1974, Joan McAuley was appointed as the first full-time archivist, tasked with collecting and sorting through material. An ad hoc Archives Committee, consisting of notable figures such as Dr. W.B. Spaulding, Dr. V.R. Neufeld, and Head Librarian Mrs. B. Robinow, supported this initiative. By March 1975, the archival collection had a dedicated area in the Technical Services area of the Health Sciences Library (HSL).
By November 1975, the Archives continued to expand, with a clerk-typist hired in January 1976 to assist with typing and cataloguing the collection, followed by a cataloguer and indexer in February 1976. The cataloguing of 105 running feet of paper was completed by April 1978, but financial constraints led to the termination of the full-time archivist position. From 1978 to 1984, archival work was maintained sporadically by a reference assistant and temporary staff, with issues of space becoming an increasing concern as material from the School of Medicine and School of Nursing continued to be transferred.
Prior to her retirement in 1982, Head Librarian Beatrix Robinow prepared a report highlighting the need for a defined mandate, qualified staff, and proper funding for the Archives. Barbara Craig, an expert consultant from the Archives of Ontario was brought on to conduct an external review and concurred with these recommendations. In December 1983, the Faculty of Health Sciences formally recognized the then ad hoc Archives Committee as a duly constituted body and endorsed a properly funded and staffed archives.
In the spring of 1984, the Chedoke-McMaster Hospitals and the Faculty of Health Sciences agreed to jointly fund an archivist position to collect and manage the records of both bodies. In January 1985, Carl Spadoni was appointed as archivist. Spadoni would implement a program to restore the provenance of records and manage record transfers. He would then oversee the move of records from the Technical Services area to the newly constructed archives storage area and adjoining office June of 1985. Spadoni would serve as archivist until the end of 1986. In 1987, Marian Bonkoff was hired as temporary archivist, and a formal agreement was signed by the Chedoke-McMaster Hospitals and the Faculty of Health Sciences, giving the archives a mandate and financially committing to the archives program. A great number of records from the Chedoke-McMaster Hospitals would be deposited at this time.
Anne McKeage would succeed Marian Bonkoff in July of 1988 as the new Archivist and History of Medicine Librarian, until her retirement in Feb of 2017. Anne McKeage would be instrumental in creating an initial database program where the archives inventory could be searched, microfilming records for preservation in case of environment disasters, and utilizing student help and volunteers to index collections and identify individuals in photo collections. Anne would also develop an access agreement with the Chedoke-McMaster Hospitals to allow use of their materials with researchers, as well as helped implement a Records Management Program. Additionally, Anne was involved in early reconciliation efforts with Inuit and their records.
From Feb 2017 to May 2018, Librarian Jack Young would provide reference assistance with the archives and was Acting Archivist/History of Medicine Librarian.
Melissa Caza would be hired as the new Health Sciences Library Archivist in July of 2018.
In 2023 Jackson Charbonneau would be hired in the new full-time position of Archives Technician to expand the work being done in the Health Sciences Archives. During this same year, Joseph Iyengar would be hired as a Project Archivist to process the Hamilton Academy of Medicine collection.
Harry Medovy was born in 1904 near Kiev, Russia. Emigrating to Canada with his family before his first birthday, he spent most of his life in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Medovy attended medical school at the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Medicine, earning a medal in pathology in his third year and graduating in 1928 with an MD and the Chown Gold Medal in Medicine. He then accepted a six-month chief residency at the Winnipeg Children’s Hospital, which inspired him to begin a career in pediatrics. Medovy chose to travel to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to complete his graduate studies. In 1930, he returned to the Children’s Hospital and took on an out-patient clinic in childhood diabetes as well as starting his own general practice as a pediatrician. In 1933, he received the Prowse Award for Medical Research for his work on diet and the diabetic child.
In 1934, Medovy married Mary Rosenblat, with whom he had two daughters. He went into academic pediatrics in 1954, becoming head of the department of pediatrics and chief pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital for the next 17 years. Additionally, Medovy held a part-time position at the City Health Department as a consultant in school health.
In 1979, Dr. Medovy’s book, A Vision Fulfilled: The Story of the Children’s Hospital of Winnipeg 1909-1973 was published. He received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Manitoba in 1975, the Canadian Paediatric Society's Alan Ross Award in 1980, and in 1990 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Harry Medovy died in 1995 at the age of 91.