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 born in Woodside, Halifax Co, Nova Scotia in 1897, the son of Malcom MacMillan (born 1870 in Kilmory, Bute, Scot.) and Emma Jane Strugnell. Malcom and father Charles (born 1833 in Taybruan, Killean, Argyll, Scot.) emigrated to Halifax, NS in the 1890's.
Dr. Charles MacMillan was Catherine DiPietro's great-uncle. She maintains a website (with MacMillan data) at: Cathy's Genealogy Extravaganza