Robert McKechnie

Dr. Robert Edward McKechnie (April 25, 1861 – May 24, 1944) was a physician and the second chancellor of the University of British Columbia.

Early life McKechnie was born in Brockville, Canada West, on April 25, 1861. After completing his secondary school education in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, he began his studies at McGill University in 1886. After receiving his medical degree from McGill in 1890, he moved to British Columbia the following year, and practiced medicine in the Nanaimo area for 10 years. He was later elected to the Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia in 1896, and served as its president in 1897, 1906, and 1910. McKechnie also held the positions of senior surgeon, member of the Board of Directors, and Life Governor at Vancouver General Hospital. He was elected the first president of the British Columbia Medical Association in 1899. He later moved to Vancouver in 1904, where he remained for the rest of his career.

He helped found the American College of Surgeons and the North Pacific Surgical Society, and was president of the Canadian Medical Association in both 1914 and 1920. In addition to his medical career, McKechnie also ventured into politics. He was elected the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Nanaimo in 1898, and served as a Minister without portfolio in the provincial government of Premier Charles Augustus Semlin. During this time, he wrote several articles for medical journals, published a book about the history of medicine on the Northwest Coast, and started the British Columbia Place Names project.

Death and legacy McKechnie was awarded the Honour of "Prince of Good Fellows" by the Vancouver Medical Association in 1928. Becoming a charter member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada in 1931, he presented later that year the Osler Lecture in Vancouver. An elementary school named in his honor, the Dr. R. E. McKechnie Elementary School, was opened by Dr. Wallace Wilson on November 22, 1957.