Roger Dante Freeman

It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of Roger D. Freeman, MD, FRCPC, on March 13th, 2025, surrounded by family and friends.

Dr. Freeman was Clinical Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychiatry, UBC, Vancouver, and former Clinical Head, Neuropsychiatry Clinic, BC, Children’s Hospital. He also served as Member and former Chair of the Professional Advisory Board of the Tourette Syndrome Foundation of Canada.

One of the most respected Tourette Syndrome clinicians in the world, Dr. Freeman drew on a lifetime of working with children and neurodisability. His brilliance as a diagnostician challenged accepted categories and assumptions that limit our ability to identify, diagnose, and treat patients with movement disorders. Instead, he pioneered new ways of listening and engaging patients and their families, tailoring intervention strategies that transformed countless lives.

He was born in New York City on August 3rd, 1933. By the age of three, his parents, Lionel and Eve Freeman, noticed he was already reading and expressing a remarkable curiosity about the world around him. This thirst for understanding never wavered. Throughout his life, he sought to uncover what could be learned when preconceptions were suspended, whether personal or professional.

After graduating from Swarthmore College in 1954, he attended medical school at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. “Hopkins didn’t care about grades,” he’d say reverently. “They taught us to think.” He completed his internship and residency in psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal, where he met Ethel Soper. They married in 1959 and moved to Philadelphia where Dr. Freeman worked at the Child Study Center. There he started a child psychiatric service for children with disabilities and mastered sign language so he could work with deaf children. In 1969, he accepted a position at the University of British Columbia, and the family moved to Vancouver, BC.

Dr. Freeman published dozens of articles and books. In 1981, he was lead author of Can’t Your Child Hear? A guide for those who Care about Deaf Children (Cambridge University Press). Diagnosing children with movement disorders, he realized that these disorders were frequently lumped together and routinely treated with pharmaceuticals. This led him to create the worldwide ‘TIC database’, working with clinicians around the world, recording the signs and symptoms of more than 7,500 individuals diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome. Without attributing negative or positive meaning to particular symptoms, Dr. Freeman believed in listening. His book, Tics and Tourette Syndrome: Key Clinical Perspectives (Mac Keith Press), stands out as an extraordinary guide for how to rethink comfortable categories and stereotypes about movement disorders and teaches how to listen, understand, and tailor effective diagnostic and treatment strategies.

Dr. Freeman was passionate about the outdoors. He and his wife Ethel published many hiking guide books, including several covering parts of the Phoenix, Arizona area. The detailed maps from their Exploring Vancouver’s North Shore Mountains were used by North Shore Search and Rescue for many years. Among many other appointments, he served as Co-Chair for the Federation of Mountain Clubs (1974-2002), was appointed Commissioner for the B.C. Forest Resource Commission (1989-1992), and was an active member of a group that lobbied for the protection of the Stein River Valley, which became a B.C. Provincial Park in 1995.

He also had a remarkable ability to acquire languages. Aside from speaking fluent English and German, he translated medical papers into Italian, Portuguese, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, and Afrikaans.

In addition to his many accomplishments, he always prioritized his family and friends. As a loving husband, father, and grandfather, he was a generous, supportive, and inspiring presence in the lives of those who knew him. His absence will be deeply felt, and he will forever be remembered with love, gratitude, and admiration.

Dr. Freeman is survived by his loving wife of 65 years, Ethel, his brother Bruce, sister Leslie, children Karen (Dave), Eric (Lisa), and Sara, and nine grandchildren (Jenna, Alyssa, Amy, Rebecca, Rachael, Adam, Noah, Thea, and Curtis).

Our family would like to thank Dr. Donna McLachlan, the staff at UBC Purdy Pavillion Stat Center, Dogwood Care Home, and all the compassionate medical professionals and care aids who supported him in his final weeks. A heartfelt thank you to Emily, Dr. Freeman's personal assistant, caregiver, and friend, for her unwavering support and kindness.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in Dr. Roger Freeman’s name to the BC Children’s Hospital, Federation of Mountain Clubs of BC, Tourette Syndrome Foundation of Canada, or your local food bank.