Obituary of Dr. Ronald Daniel Stewart

Ronald Daniel Stewart, CC, OC, ONS, ECNS (hon), BA, BSc, MD, FACEP, FAEMS (hon), DSc (hon), LLD (hon) October 11, 1942 – October 21, 2024 Dr. Ron Stewart lived the last weeks of his life with the same grace and wit that had seen him through the previous eight decades. He always said he has the “biggest family in the world.” That family and the world will miss him terribly. Ron, one of the most prominent emergency physicians of his generation, joked with one friend that he was lying “not quite in state” at the Halifax teaching hospital where he had tirelessly walked the halls six decades earlier, as a Dalhousie University medical student. Throughout his final days, a steady flow of people brought him comfort through their love, support and heartfelt words of gratitude, honouring the extraordinary impact he had on their lives and his remarkable legacy. Ron ‘s work has had a world-wide impact. Here at home when he was Nova Scotia’s Minister of Health, he introduced a modern Emergency Health Services program which had a lasting impact, as did his lengthier career as a professor and clinician in Halifax. The medical students he taught, the colleagues he mentored, the students he housed at home near Dalhousie University all shared a common bond in recognizing his compassionate and inclusive care for all who needed help. Ron lived those core values as passionately as he cultivated them. A lifelong lover of the arts, Ron first majored in languages and history at Acadia University, and he firmly believed that a well-rounded educational program provided a better foundation for understanding the art of medicine. In 2004, he took on the role as Director of the Medical Humanities program at the Dalhousie University Medical School. Even before that appointment, he shared his own lifelong passion for music, by founding The Dalhousie Medical School Chorale and its smaller chorale groups. He believed that he was fortunate to be admitted to an emergency medical residency program in LA in 1972, years before the field was recognized as a specialty in Canada. A quirk of fate assigned him to a new role as script advisor to TV medical shows in the entertainment capital of the world, where he became known as ‘Doc Hollywood’. Ron was next asked to train an early generation of paramedics in LA. In the heart of the action on LA streets and freeways, he said he learned more from his students, many of whom had served as medics in Vietnam, than they did from him. During those busy evenings and long nights, he wrote the famous instruction manual, complete with his own stick-man illustrations for prehospital care. His LA paramedic program and his mimeographed manual were legendary and served as a vital resource for prehospital care in the US, UK and Australia. Ron’s contribution to the development of modern emergency medicine, and the education of its practitioners, earned him the respect of his peers and dozens of awards. In 2008, the American College of Emergency Physicians, named him a Hero of Emergency Medicine. At first, Ron was more honored in the U.S. than Canada. However, in 2023, he was awarded the Companion of the Order of Canada – which “recognizes outstanding achievement and merit of the highest degree, especially in service to Canada or to humanity at large.” Ron was gratified and humbled by all of his awards. Among them were the Order of Nova Scotia and honorary doctorates from three Canadian universities. Ron was a coalminer’s son to the core. His mom Edith and his dad, Donald Hughie Stewart, were determined that Ronald and his elder sister Donalda would excel, which meant not only getting good grades and doing good deeds; it also meant treating others with respect in the close-knit coal-mining town of Sydney Mines. Cape Breton. Donald Hughie was a Draegerman, a member of the elite corps of coal miners trained to respond to emergencies underground. He gave Ron his first medical kit, cobbled together from odds and ends of the emergency supplies he took down the mines every day. Later, Dr. Ronald Stewart, emergency physician extraordinaire, would follow his father’s example and heed his mother’s advice - “don’t act too big for your britches”– through a long and legendary career. Ron was predeceased by his parents. He is survived by his sister Donalda (James) Davis of Stratford, Ontario, and countless friends, colleagues and students. All of them hold Ron close in their hearts, as do their children who knew him as having a cherished role in their families. Ron’s close friends and caregivers would like to express gratitude to the palliative care team at the Victoria General Hospital and visitors whose unwavering care, presence, gifts, and messages brought him so much comfort and support. Join us in celebrating the life of Dr. Ronald Stewart on Wednesday November 20, 2024, 6 - 9 pm McInnes Room, Student Union Building, 6136 University Avenue, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS. An additional gathering in Cape Breton, in December, will be announced soon. In lieu of flowers, please acknowledge your emergency medicine physicians and paramedics by a donation to: giving.dal.ca/ronstewart.