Dr. G Ross Langley

Dr. G. Ross Langley, B.A., MD, FRCPC, FACP, FRCPE, MACP, DL, died in the Victoria General Hospital Friday, 19 June. Born in Sydney, Cape Breton, NS, he was the son of Freda Catherine Ross and John George Elmer Langley.

Dr. Langley was a consummate physician, dedicated teacher and mentor, community volunteer and outstanding clinical investigator, making tremendous contributions to the evidence-based and compassionate care of patients with hematological disorders.

He graduated from Port Hawkesbury and New Glasgow public schools, then from Mount Allison University (BA) and Dalhousie Medical School. After clinical training in internal medicine in Canada, he trained in hematology research at the University of Rochester, New York, on a Medical Research Council of Canada fellowship, and at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He joined Dalhousie Faculty of Medicine as the John and Mary R. Markle Scholar in Academic Medicine in 1961 and in 1968 became Professor of Medicine. He served as the Head of the Department of Medicine at Dalhousie and the Victoria General Hospital, was appointed Emeritus Professor of Medicine in 2002, and recently honoured by Dalhousie with an Honorary Doctor of Laws.

For some 50 years he was devoted to the educational training of all Canadian specialists. His research on hematology, medical education and medical ethics, his extensive leadership and volunteer service with the National Cancer Institute of Canada, the Canadian Hematology Society, and the Royal College, and his care of patients and service as a physician in Nova Scotia, were recognized with Queen Elizabeth II Silver Medal (1977) and the Queen Elizabeth Golden Jubilee Medal (2002), among other awards. In 2007 he was made a Master of the American College of Physicians.

He is deeply loved by his family for his endless generosity, encouragement to achieve one’s best, storytelling, good humour, and affection. He is survived by his wife Jean Marie Ballantyne Langley; his children: Dr. Joanne (John), Mark Ross (Tracy) and Dr. Richard (Christine). He was the beloved and loving Bapa to Peter John (deceased), Julia, Daniel and Isobel LeBlanc; Ellen, Mary, David Langley; and Stewart, Ross, Charlotte, Elizabeth and James Langley. He is also survived by his brother Graham and sisters Jean and Diane Betts (Peter).

The family is sincerely grateful for the excellent and compassionate care received from the Hematology service, especially Dr. Stephen Couban and Paula Sudworth-Adams, and the staff on 8A Victoria.

Funeral services will be held in St. Andrew’s United Church 6036 Robie St., Friday 26 June at 11 am. Rev. Dr. Russ Daye officiating; reception in church hall following. If desired donations in Dr, Langley's may be made to Mount Allison University http:/www.mta.ca/development/

“And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so?

I did.

And what did you want?

To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.”

Raymond Carver (Late Fragment, 1989)