Dr. W. Robert Harris
1922 – 2005

Robert Harris was born in Toronto December 19^th, 1922. He was educated at Upper Canada College in Toronto and graduated from the University of Toronto as an M.D. in 1945. He did his surgical training in Toronto and Boston and became a Fellow in the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada in 1953.

As part of his surgical training, Bob was a Research Fellow and demonstrator in histology in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Toronto and as a result of this, wrote the classic section on bone and cartilage histology in Hamm’s Textbook of Histology.

Dr. Harris was a McLaughlin Travelling Fellow in 1952 and 1953 and returned to Toronto to take up a consultant position at the Toronto General Hospital shortly thereafter.

Bob had a life-long interest in every aspect of academic orthopaedic surgery and among his many accomplishments, he was the Chairman of the Specialty Committee of Orthopaedic Surgery for the Royal College, a Royal College examiner for many years, President of the Canadian Orthopaedic Foundation, President of the Canadian Orthopaedic Association and an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.

My personal knowledge of Dr. Harris extended over many years; I was fortunate to be a resident on his service and it was my pleasure as the Chairman of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Toronto to host his retirement dinner from orthopaedics in 1999.

I have many great memories of Bob Harris – he was a wonderful teacher and a superb role model and his death is a loss to orthopaedic surgery in this country.

James P. Waddell, M.D., FRCSC
A.J. Latner Professor & Chairman
Division of Orthopaedic Surgery
University of Toronto