Obituary of Donald Robertson MD

Dr. Donald Charles Robertson MD Our Father passed away peacefully, in his 97th year, at The Veterans Wing of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre on Sunday, November 1, 2015. He was predeceased by our Mother Hazel Edna Robertson in April 2001 and his younger Brother Graham David Robertson in October 1987. He is survived by his son David and daughter Elizabeth, as well as his six grandchildren: Michael; Ian; Margaret; Struan; Geoffrey; and Catherine. During his long life he always made helping others, having a positive outlook, and embracing a passion for life-long learning as allowed him to make many friends and share happy memories with them. Born in Toronto on July 28, 1918, Dad was primarily educated at Upper Canada College starting in 1930 at the Preparatory School and graduated from the Upper School in 1938 with honours. During the summers he usually spent July canoe tripping at Camp Temagami where he developed a love of the north woods and became an expert canoeist. This passion for the north led him, while at university, to join a number of friends on a substantial two month adventure down the Fraser River in British Columbia which he captured on film. The rest of his summers were spent at the family cottage on Ahmic Lake where he was an avid sailor. Following his Father's and Mother's example of careers in medicine, Dad enrolled at the University of Toronto, and graduated in June 1943 from the Faculty of Medicine as a Medical Doctor. In August 1943 he was particularly pleased to be accepted at the Hospital for Sick Children as a Junior Resident and by May 1944 had completed his initial practical requirements. In June 1944 he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy and was commissioned aboard the Castle Class Corvette HMCS Tillsonburg as the Medical Officer as well as the Flotilla Medical Officer where he made many lifelong friends. Father was fond of recounting to us the story of how he and Allan Lambert, who was the Purser at the time, had spent many hours scotch-taping dollar bills together after the crew's payroll had somehow became shredded and Alan wanted to make payroll. While on leave in Halifax, he met our Mother who was serving at the time as a nurse in the naval base, and in November 1944 they were married. At the end of the war in February 1946 Dad was accepted at the Toronto General Hospital and progressed through his interrupted residency and surgical training becoming qualified as a Senior Surgical Resident in 1949. In 1951 he took a leave of absence to train in London England in the relatively new field of Plastic Surgery and received his FRCS in 1952. Upon his return to Toronto he opened a private practice specializing in plastic surgery and in 1953 was a founding member of what became the Janes Surgical Society. Over the next 35 years as part of this unique Canadian surgical society, Father pioneered and was recognized for his contributions in such areas as facial and hand reconstructive surgery and his expert testimony in some landmark Canadian medical cases. One of his grandchildren, who was studying law at the time, was absolutely astounded when his class started to review a major case only to find that his grandfather was the primary witness and that the judge had made a lengthy referral in his summary to the excellence of his testimony. In 1986 Father retired from his private medical practice but continued to serve well into the mid-1990's as a professor at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine. At the time he also discovered personal computers and was so interested in what they could do that he became an expert in Microsoft DOS and then Windows. This new passion extended well beyond personal computing and while he was the President of the University of Toronto Medical Alumni, he had all of their manual records and accounting switched to electronic files and systems which was something that his predecessors had decided was impractical. Up until 2014, Father would spend hours on his desktop building complicated spreadsheets and surfing the internet, thereby giving the lie to individuals who pontificated to him that seniors did not understand or use personal computers. A celebration of his life will be held at the HUMPHREY FUNERAL HOME A.W. MILES - NEWBIGGING CHAPEL, 1403 Bayview Avenue (south of Davisville Avenue) on Saturday, November 7, 2015 at 3:00 p.m. with a reception to follow at the same location. In lieu of flowers, please send a donation to the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Foundation. Condolences and memories may be forwarded through www.humphreymilesnewbigging.com.