The Saga of Doctor Thor

Louis A. Knafla is a history professor at the University of Calgary.

Paul Henrik Thorbjorn Thorlakson (1895 —) was a pioneer of medical research, national medical care and education, who initiated many programs for community as well as insured health services. Furthermore, he was active in the University of Manitoba, and national and international medical societies. Jack Cunnings, one of his life-long colleagues, was executive director of the Sanitorium Board of Manitoba 1947—73 and active in the field of rehabilitation. This biography of Thorlakson, which is largely public and professional, uses private and public papers to chronicle his career beginning with matriculation through his education at the University of Manitoba (1914), to his early work at the Winnipeg Clinic, and his work and contributions to the Manitoba Institute for the Advancement of Medical Education and Research, the Manitoba Medical Centre, the Faculty of Medicine, provincial health services, and the Norwegian and Icelandic communities. There is a foreword from the president of the University; a prologue from Thorlakson’s children; an appendix of documents comprising travel diaries, letters and speeches; a family chronology; a list of publications; notes; and an index of names. As a biography, this work is largely a factual, uncritical and non-chronological study of his work and career, with at times efflorescent prose invoking images of Winston Churchill and other contemporaries. There is no attempt to write a critical study of the man, his work and career. Nor is it a life and times, which perhaps would have been more useful for the general reader for whom this book was written.

The biography is attractively produced with numerous illustrations of family life, including the celebration of his sixtieth wedding anniversary and ninetieth birthday.