Dr. William Hay Kirkaldy-Willis
1914 – 2006

Dr. William Hay Kirkaldy-Willis died at the age of 92 on May 7, 2006. KW, as he was fondly known to his friends and colleagues, was born in Kingston, Surrey, England on February 26, 1914. He attended medical school at Trinity Hall, Cambridge and The London Hospital. In 1941 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and moved to a remote part of Kenya to work as a missionary surgeon. His own description of himself as “a self-taught orthopaedic surgeon” hides the determined manner in which he made himself an academic surgeon. In those days before instructional videos were available, KW learned advanced orthopaedic surgery from the most eminent surgeons in North America and Britain by visiting their operating rooms and inviting them to Kenya to teach there. He became Senior Surgeon, Ministry of Health, Kenya; and Lecturer, Makerere Medicine School, Kampala, Uganda. His claim that he was “the best orthopaedic surgeon between Cairo and Cape Town” was well deserved – for he was the only orthopaedic surgeon there for many years.

In 1964, KW moved to Canada – to Edmonton for one year and in 1965 to Saskatoon, where he lived until he retired. In his fifties when he moved to Canada, KW insisted on earning the orthopaedic specialty certification by examination even though he was eligible for an exemption because of his academic position, and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada. At various times he was Professor, Department of Surgery, University of Saskatchewan; Head, Division of Orthopaedics, University of Saskatchewan; Head, Department of Orthopaedics, Royal University Hospital, Saskatoon; President of the Canadian Orthopaedic Research Society, the American Back Society, the North American Spine Society, and the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine.

KW introduced in post World War colonial Kenya what then were new operations in the first world for tuberculosis of the spine, and he developed his own operation to fuse hips damaged by tuberculosis. Whilst at the University of Saskatchewan he became an internationally recognized expert on spine surgery. Contributing significantly to the understanding of back pain, he advanced our knowledge of degeneration of the lumbar spine, and was the major contributor to the first comprehensive classification of lumbar spinal stenosis.

KW would hate being labeled an administrator and yet he was a skilful one in every sense. His administrative philosophy was, in his own words, “begin immediately, and progress slowly”. Dealing with bureaucracy he used ingenuity, tact, firmness, and humour. An example of this was his advice that “the best way to get a plan implemented is to convince the person responsible for the decision that it was their idea!”

Remembering KW, the descriptors that come to mind are: a gentleman, integrity, teacher, mentor, and role model. From his trainees and colleagues in whom he took a genuine interest, he expected hard work, honesty, loyalty, and character. His self-deprecating style endeared him to students who appreciated his mastery of the “Socratic” method of teaching. KW has influenced directly and indirectly a generation of orthopaedic surgeons who have spread out across North America. On the Division of Orthopaedics he left his stamp. In the College of Medicine his landscape paintings today hang in many departments.

In 1990 he moved to Victoria, BC, where he lived sixteen happy years in retirement, pursuing his passion for gardening and painting. He is survived by his wife Betty, son Iain, grandchildren, sister, nephews and niece.

In so many ways KW was a wonderful man and a great friend. He will be truly missed by his many friends and family.

Ken Yong-Hing, MB, ChB, FRCS(Glasgow), FRCSC
Professor, Department of Surgery,
University of Saskatchewan

John H. Wedge, O.C., M.D., FRCSC
Professor, Department of Surgery,
University of Toronto