Dr. Charles MacMillan (1897- 1980): Canada's representative to the World Health Organization

Contributed by: of Sussex, NJ, USA    27 Aug 1998

Dr. C. W. MacMillan

  His inquiring mind made him a lifelong student and his lifelong
habit of shunning the limelight kept him out of the public eye,
but in the death of Dr. Charles W. MacMillan, New Brunswick and
Canada have lost an extraordinary physician whose influence on
public health services will be an enduring monument.  He was a
quiet pioneer.
  He fought tuberculosis in New Brunswick when it was a dreaded 
killer whose very name was rarely spoken and the victims were 
hidden away.  As chief medical officer for the City of Saint John.
he tracked down typhoid carriers by patient detective work, 
skillfully levered the council of the day into cleaning up the 
water supply and chlorinating it, and helped guide establishment 
of a safe water supply for Rothesay.
  When the trail-breaking public health efforts in Saint John led
to the establishment of a separate ministry of health in New 
Brunswick - the first in any jurisdiction in the British 
Commonwealth - he became deputy minister.
  Later he established the chair of epidemiology at McGill University
and taught public health to a generation of doctors before retiring.
  His influence was broad; he served as president of the Canadian
Public Health Association and was a delegate to the United Nations
sessions that set up the World Health Organization.
  The death of Dr. MacMillan at 83 is a loss to all."

	Dr. Charles MacMillan was Catherine DiPietro's great-uncle.
	She maintains a website (with MacMillan data) at:
		Cathy's Genealogy Extravaganza