History of Medicine

Dr. O. Harold Warwick was born in 1915 in Saint John, New Brunswick. He graduated with a B.A. from Mount Allison University and then studied medicine at McGill University for a year before transferring to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He then returned to McGill to graduate with his M.D. After graduating, he interned at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal until joining the R.C.A.F from 1941 to 1945 to work on medical aspects of high altitude exposure in stations in Canada and overseas.

After the war, he practiced medicine in Montreal and was a staff member at McGill University. He then went on to become executive-director of the National Cancer Institute of Canada, and was a staff member at the University of Toronto as well. Dr. Warwick was a pioneer in cancer chemotherapy and published the results of clinical trials as early as 1947.

Dr. Warwick became Western's Dean of Medicine in 1961. In 1965, he was appointed Vice-President of Health Sciences but went on study leave in 1973 at the Princess Margaret and Wellesley Hospitals in Toronto, as well as various cancer centres overseas. His portrait was painted by the university's former resident artist, Gerald Trottier. Dr. Warwick was also one of the first recipients of the U.W.O. Alumni Association Award of Merit.