Fonds F009 - Mary Tremblay fonds

Dr. Mary K. Tremblay (1944-2009) was an occupational therapist, educator, scholar of disability and rehabilitation, and an advocate for disabled peoples.

Tremblay earned a Diploma of Physical and Occupational Therapy from the University of Toronto in 1967 and began her career as a practitioner. In the following decade, she helped found the Occupational Therapy Program at Mohawk College and earned a Master’s of Health Sciences degree from McMaster University in 1977. In 1985, Tremblay became Director of the Degree Completion Program for Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy at McMaster. In 1989, for one year, she served as Acting Associate Dean of the School of Rehabilitation Science, and, in 1991, became a tenured Associate Professor.

Tremblay earned her doctorate in 1993 at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Later that decade, she developed and taught one of the first courses on Human Rights and Disability, a course which won the 1997 McMaster University President’s Award for Course Design and was published by Amnesty International. Tremblay served as Curriculum Chair for the new Master of Clinical Health Sciences (Occupational Therapy) Program and was a member of the Program in Medical History. She retired in August 2009.

Tremblay was a central figure in the study of the history of disability and rehabilitation, spinal cord injury rehabilitation, war and disability in the twentieth century, aging with a pre-existing disability, disability and rehabilitation policy, and human rights of disabled peoples. She was particularly interested in the experiences of veterans and civilians who had suffered a spinal cord injury during the Second World War, with whom she conducted oral history interviews. Committed to social justice for disabled peoples, she was also an advocate for disabled war veterans and the disability rights movement.

Dr. Tremblay died on 13 October 2009 at the age of 65.