2014 INDUCTEE TO THE CANADIAN MEDICAL HALL OF FAME
Dr. T.J. ‘Jock’ Murray, OC ONS
Category for Induction: Builder
Education: MD, Dalhousie University, 1963
Dr. Jock Murray has been inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. He is an intellectual physician of many dimensions. He is a remarkably accomplished clinician, academic and leader with the ability to profoundly impact learners and patients. One of Dr. Murray’s greatest legacies is in the field of multiple sclerosis (MS). He founded and then directed the Dalhousie MS Research Unit for more than 20 years. He was a founder and president of the International Consortium of MS Centers and contributed to MS research and education nationally and internationally. Internationally recognized as the best source on the subject, he is the author of a number of books on MS including the award winning Multiple Sclerosis: The History of a Disease.
Dr. Murray was born in Pictou, Nova Scotia, did pre med at St. Francis Xavier University, and graduated with honors from Dalhousie Medical School in 1963. Following two years in general practice, he trained in internal medicine and then in neurology in Halifax, London, and Toronto, before joining the Dalhousie medical faculty in 1970. He became Professor of Medicine, Chief of Medicine, Head of Neurology, Dean of Medicine, and Professor of Medical Humanities. He is now Professor Emeritus.
As Dean of Medicine from 1985 to 1992, he proved himself an innovator in medical education creating a trendsetting, problem-based, tutorial format curriculum in the undergraduate years and a world-respected program in the medical humanities, fostering other related disciplines – artists and writers in residence, history, philosophy, theatre, music and literature. He once wrote: We need science, but science also needs the humanities to understand human values and the human questions and the human decisions that must guide our use of science.
Dr. Murray has more than 300 medical publications, nine books, 43 text book chapters, and has held 91 funded research grants. He was a member of the Working Group on Disability in US Presidents which presented its report to President Clinton at the White House in 1996. He was Chairman of both the Board of Governors and Board of Regents of the American College of Physicians, President of the American Osler Society, President and founder of the Consortium of MS Centers, President of the Canadian Neurological Society, President of the Association of Canadian Medical Colleges and President of the Canadian Society for the History of Medicine. His many honors include a Mastership in the American College of Physicians (1997), the Dr. A. B. Baker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Neurological Education from the Academy of Neurology (1997), the Scheinberg Award for Lifetime Contributions to Multiple Sclerosis from the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centres (2000), Mentor of the Year Award from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (2001), and five honorary degrees. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada appointed to the Order of Nova Scotia.
