J. Wendell Macleod: Saskatchewan's Red Dean

A revealing biography of one of the architects of medical education in Canada

By Louis Horlick
CA $34.95


Popularly known as Saskatchewan's Red Dean because of his progressive views and strong support of Canada's first medicare plan, J. Wendell Macleod (1905-2001) was a charismatic pioneer in social medicine and medical education. Louis Horlick mines Macleod's diaries, which span seventy-five years, in a vivid biography that also depicts the social and political complexities of health care in Canada in the twentieth century.

Macleod was an ardent believer in the social principles of health care. His early awareness of the economic chasm that separated rich from poor provided the focal point of his career as first dean of medicine at the University of Saskatchewan - he taught that understanding the social, economic, and political world in which people lived was critical to good medical education and practice and made it the core of the curriculum.

J. Wendell Macleod offers a revealing portrait of an early advocate of universal health care who passionately advanced his social agenda in his profession and practice. Macleod was appointed an officer of the Order of Canada in 1980. 

Review quotes

"Making good use of his remarkable diaries, this book presents the life of a brave and admirable man complete with warts." Robert Spasoff, epidemiology and community medicine, University of Ottawa

Louis Horlick is professor emeritus, medicine, University of Saskatchewan, and the author of Medical College to Community Resource: Saskatchewan's Medical School, 1978-1998 and They Built Better Than They Knew: Saskatchewan's Royal University Hospital, A History, 1955-1992. He is an officer of the Order of Canada.