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Alberta, Past and Present, Historical and Biographical
Vol 2
David L. Dick, M. D.


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.



 


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