Kenneth George McKenzie and the Founding of Neurosurgery in Canada

John H. Gryfe is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon practising in
Toronto.

Surgeon, soldier, sportsman—a man of focused achievement in all
endeavours that interested him—K.G. McKenzie well represented a
generation of Canadian physicians who converted their British- and
American-acquired training into an internationally recognized pillar in
the practice of modern medicine in Canada. Himself the son of a
respected country family practitioner, Dr. McKenzie returned to Canada
after a year of specialized training as the surgical resident of
world-renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Harvey Cushing at the Peter Bent Brigham
Hospital Harvard University.

Within the tradition-rich University of Toronto environment, Ken
McKenzie became part of a triumvirate, along with Wilder Penfield in
Montreal and Harry Botterell in Winnipeg, who advanced Canadian
neurosurgery into a unique specialty, extending beyond the
then-traditional scope in conjunction with the training of general
surgeons. Over the next 30 years, until his retirement from the
university in 1952, McKenzie became respected teacher, colleague, and
collaborator for a generation of neurosurgeons who discovered in him the
ability “to come into the OR and just stand there, or even assist
you,” leaving in the young surgical resident an increased feeling of
self-assuredness and knowledge.

Dr. Thomas Morley, whose achievements include following McKenzie to
become head of neurosurgery at Toronto General Hospital, has produced an
enjoyable and lucidly written portrait of a man, his family, his
specialty, his hospital, and the profession he loved so ardently.