Biography of a New Canadian Family

The photograph from the air of the University of Montreal, built (1928-1945)on Mount-Royal by Quebec-born Architect/Engineer Ernest Cormier, (1885-1980), trained in Paris. That whole period was very important for developing theProvince of Quebec. The building was built on the north-side of the Mountainwith the enormous old cemetery easily visible and the St. Lawrence river justvisible on the other side. Today, such a photograph would no longer be sostriking, the whole area has many more impressive buildings and enormous treescover the area.

We lived a ten minute walk away from the bottom left-hand corner of the picturein Outremont, the francophone counterpart of Anglophone Westmount twomiles of so to the west. The head office of Family Medicine was situated close toand just to the west of the big tower. It is from there that the Bethune/Chineseconnection was established. I was at the UofM from 1975-1995. It was by far themost productive period of our professional lives.