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Dr. David L. Dick,
superintendent of the Provincial Mental Institute at Oliver, near
Edmonton, is one of the foremost members of his profession in the
district and province. He was born at Ridgetown, Ontario, in 1884, a son
of David and Ellen (Clark) Dick, likewise natives of Ontario. On the
paternal side Dr. Dick is of Scotch descent, the grandfather having come
to Canada from Scotland at an early day and homesteaded some land in
Ontario. The father is still living on this old homestead near Ridgetown.
He has followed farming the greater part of his life and has won
substantial success. Mrs. Dick passed away in 1908. To their union eight
children were born, Dr. Dick being the fifth in order of birth. Mr. Dick
has always given his allegiance to the Liberal party and his religious
faith is manifest in his membership in the Presbyterian church. He is an
honored and respected citizen of the community in which he has resided
so many years.
In the acquirement of his
early education David L. Dick attended the public schools in the
vicinity of the home farm and was graduated from the RIdgetown
Collegiate Institute in 1904. He then attended Normal School at Chatham
and for the following three years taught school. In early life his
greatest ambition was to become a physician and subsequently he enrolled
in the medical department of the University of Toronto, from which
institution he was graduated in 1911. The next two years he spent in
Grace Hospital, Detroit, Michigan, taking postgraduate work and then
engaged in general practice at Edmonton. He enlisted for service in the
World war and in August, 1915, he went overseas as a member of the
Imperial Medical Corps, holding the rank of lieutenant, being one of the
first one hundred to go. Dr. Dick was in the different hospitals in
Europe and was placed on the front line about six weeks after his
arrival in France. While in the trenches he was attached to the One
Hundred and Forty-second Field Ambulance Corps, Fifteenth Division. In
February, 1916, he contracted trench fever and was confined to a
hospital for six weeks. He was then invalided to England, where he
remained until he was transferred to the Fourth and Fifth Black Watch at
Rippon, and remained there until the expiration of his term of
enlistment, when he returned to Canada. That was in 1917. He was then
offered the position of resident physician of the Strathcona Military
Hospital at Strathcona with the rank of captain, and so served for nine
months. He resigned to take the superintendency of the Soldiers Mental
Hospital located near Red Deer, which was opened in 1918. In 1923 the
Soldiers Mental hospital at Red Deer became the Provincial Training
School for Mental Deficients and a new Provincial Mental Institute was
opened at Oliver, nine miles from Edmonton, where Dr. Dick is now
superintendent. Dr. Dick stands high in the medical fraternity of the
district and province and no man could discharge the duties of his
present position with more efficiency than he.
In June, 1918, was
celebrated the marriage of Dr. Dick and Miss Margaret Kathleen Hurst,
who was born in Woodstock, Ontario, but lived in Edmonton for eighteen
years, a daughter of W. S. Hurst, one of the oldest commercial traveling
men in the west.
Dr. and Mrs. Dick are
consistent members of the Presbyterian church and are zealous workers in
its behalf. The Doctor is identified with the Masons and is a Knights
Templar and a member of the Mystic Shrine. He is essentially
public-spirited and his aid can always be counted upon in the
furtherance of any movement for the development and improvement of the
community. The greater part of his time and attention, however, is
devoted to his duties as head of the hospital. |
