Dialogue Volume 13 Issue 4 2017 | Page 26

APPRECIATION Service to medical regulation runs in the family By Stuart Foxman W hen Dr. Hugh Kendall began working on behalf of the College as a peer assessor, he was surprised to learn that he was not the first in his family to participate in medical regulation. In fact, he learned that his grandmother – broadcaster Betty Kennedy – is considered a College pioneer. Ms. Kennedy, who died in March 2017 at 91, was best known as a 33-year panellist on CBC’s current affairs quiz show Front Page Challenge and hosted her own show on To- ronto’s CFRB radio for 27 years. She was inducted into both the Canadian Broadcasting Hall of Fame and the Canadian News Hall of Fame, was an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 2000 was appointed to the Canadian Senate. For the CPSO, Ms. Kennedy held yet another distinction: the first public member to serve on a College committee. It happened in 1970, several years before legislation required the inclu- sion of public members in CPSO governance. After hearing concerns over how some complaints were handled, CPSO’s Council asked the Ms. Betty Kennedy Ontario government to appoint a lay was a panellist person to the Complaints Committee. Ms. on Front Page Kennedy was named, which the then Council Challenge. viewed as a way to support the idea of “par- ticipatory democracy within the affairs of the College.” 26 DIALOGUE ISSUE 4, 2017 When Dr. Kendall became involved with the College, Ms. Kennedy told him about her own role. It made sense to him. He says his grand- mother was a groundbreaker in media, so why not be a groundbreaker in this arena too? Dr. Kendall’s maternal grandfather was George Allan Burton, who ran the Simpson’s department store. Kennedy married Burton in 1976 after her husband and his wife had passed away. “She’s the grandmother I knew and grew up with,” says Dr. Kendall. He recalls a time, after the marriage, when his grandfather was a mystery guest on Front Page Challenge and disguised his voice so Ms. Kennedy couldn’t guess his identity. Was Dr. Kendall impressed because his grandmother was on TV? Not as much as by her other achievements. “I used to think she was cool because she interviewed Donny Osmond on CFRB,” he laughs. For Dr. Kendall’s family, going into medi- cine, and making a broader impact on health care and science, was part of a tradition. His father and other grandfather were both physicians. A great-uncle, Eli Franklin Burton, chaired the Physics Department at the Univer- sity of Toronto and developed the first practical electron microscope. The Burton Family Wing at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and Burton Hall at the former Wellesley Hospital bear the family name. “My path to going into medical school was easy to decide,” says Dr. Kendall. Dr. Kendall, a general surgeon and head of