"Welcome Doktah Steevin, Sah"

Cynthia R. Comacchio is an associate professor of history at Wilfrid
Laurier University and the author of Nations Are Built of Babies: Saving
Ontario’s Mothers and Children.

“Welcome Doktah Steevin, Sah” is a very personal autobiographical
account of a long and varied career in veterinary medicine.

Stephen was born in Montreal to a Scottish-Canadian Protestant family.
Like so many others, he and his family struggled through the Great
Depression. Lying about his age, the 17-year-old Stephen joined the 17th
Hussars in 1938. He eventually served overseas, landing in Normandy in
1944. When hostilities ceased, he and his English wife were expecting
their first child. In 1948, Stephen began studies at the Ontario
Veterinary College in Guelph. Not long after graduating with first-class
honors, he accepted a position at the American University of Beirut in
Lebanon. Following postgraduate training at the London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine, he served as a research scientist at the West
African Institute for Trypanosomiasis Research in Nigeria.

Stephen later returned to the American University of Beirut, where he
remained until 1974. Upon his return to Canada, he took a position with
Agriculture Canada, where he established a Canadian animal diseases
reporting system. Within two years, he had completed an index of
diseases and pathological states likely to occur in any region in
Canada. He felt stifled as a government employee, however. After
completing a scholarly study of his specialty, veterinary
trypanosomiasis, he left the civil service in 1985.

The first half of this book is straightforward autobiography, featuring
interesting and candid observations on the author’s life and work in
Lebanon and Africa. The second half, which covers his post-retirement
years, is much more anecdotal, consisting largely of his views on
current and historical issues, character sketches, and more
reminiscences of his colorful and varied life experiences. Recommended
for historians of Canadian veterinary medicine and those interested in
international development issues.