The life story of Dr. Douglas MacEwan is a triumphant march of achievement, service and philanthropy that have left their mark on several generations.
The leadership gift the family has made in his memory in support of the Lake of the Woods District Hospital Foundation’s Beyond the Scan campaign ensures that this legacy will continue.
Dr. MacEwan would have been 100 this past Remembrance Day, his daughter Eleanor Wiebe said in a recent interview. And in fact, he was a veteran, serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force Coastal Command 407 Squadron in World War II.
He returned from the war to Montreal to get his medical degree in 1952 at McGill University, and began his career as a radiologist at Montreal Children’s Hospital.
As head of the Department of Radiology at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg from 1966 to 1983, Dr. MacEwan not only improved the quality of staff training and patient care but also became an innovator – scheduling daily case-review meetings within the department, establishing clinical specialty sub-sections and creating the first dedicated ultrasound department in Canada.
A visiting professor and/or guest lecturer at more than 26 North American universities, he was a speaker at national and international radiology symposiums.
Little wonder that the cottage he built on Clearwater Bay on Lake of the Woods in 1969 meant so much to him.
“My dad loved the lake,” Wiebe recalled.
“He loved gardening, sailing, picking blueberries – that was his ‘downtime family’ place.”
Memories of her dad also include passing along to all his children the need to give back to the community, she added. And the Beyond the Scan campaign is a good time to remember that.
“It’s so important for the people of the region, whether they are summer residents or live in the area – it’s so important to have the hospital in Kenora,” Wiebe said.
“If you have any kind of accident or health problem, it’s so important it’s there.
“My dad was always about prioritizing giving back to the community. Donations are one form, but maybe you give time and volunteer. Maybe you help somebody, take them to appointments. It’s just about caring for your community however you are able.”
In his time, Dr. MacEwan was part of many communities, and his support of them all was unstinting and untiring. He made annual gifts to McGill University, the Canadian Red Cross, the Canadian War Museum and the Radiological Society of North America (which awarded him a gold medal).
A strong believer in education, he created the Douglas and Elizabeth MacEwan Student Resident Endowment Award, given annually to a medical student from rural Manitoba with a demonstrated financial need, sufficient to cover both tuition and living costs for one year.
Wiebe recalled the deep passion her parents had for the arts, creating the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School MacEwan Scholarship, given annually to two gifted students who need financial assistance to complete their dance education, sufficient to cover academic, training and boarding fees.
In the summer of 2020, seeing how COVID-19 was threatening Winnipeg’s extraordinary arts community, he took it upon himself to raise $96,000 by walking one kilometer a day for the 96 days leading up to his 96th birthday. In the end, he raised $124,000 to share among the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Manitoba Orchestra. For this feat, the Globe and Mail named him one of its Art Heroes of 2020.
Looking back at a century of significant accomplishments, Wiebe finds the most incredible thing about her dad was how humble he was.
“He was all about service. He put his life on the line for Canada as a young man. He returned, become a doctor and, as a radiologist, was so concerned about training other radiologists. He believed in excellence and wrote so many scientific papers and lectured.”
And then there was his cottage.
“This was one of his favourite places in the world. It was part of his community,” Wiebe declared.
She imagines that he would be proud that the family’s leadership gift in his honour will assist the Beyond the Scan campaign, with its goal of replacing mammography and CT equipment, and securing northwestern Ontario’s only MRI machine outside of Thunder Bay.
LWDH will be established as a diagnostic imaging centre of excellence. And given Dr. MacEwan’s long career in diagnostics, he will have a place of honour among the innovations with the renaming of the X-ray room after him.