“A Healer and a Builder is a fascinating and well-written biography of Dr. John R. Augustine, a Canadian physician and pillar of society in the Thunder Bay region. The book tracks his upbringing in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, from a down on its luck branch of a well-to-do clan (Kaufmans and Breithaupts). He grew up in a gilded environment – including living in a grand house provided to his parents through the grace and favour of wealthy relatives.

 

Augustine put himself through medical school with a combination of meagre assistance from his immediate family, summer jobs involving manual labour, and intermittent donations from rich relations. Hitchhiking was a common means of travel. After graduating from Western in London and interning at St. Mike’s in Toronto, he set up practice in Thunder Bay and became involved in an astonishing number of metaphorical and literal building projects for social causes, civic projects and medical groups. Augustine’s literal building activities included the Thunder Bay Museum and McCullough Art Gallery, the Centre for Indian Art, and ultimately the founding of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine University.

 

Augustine’s metaphorical building activities included work with the Addiction Research Foundation and the Ontario Association of Children with Learning Disabilities. Augustine and his wife Annette, who was a tireless community activist in her own right, had a strong social conscience rooted in their Methodist church upbringing. He actually took in several unwed mothers and a homeless Welsh boy to live with his family. Truly a mensch.

 

Augustine rose to the top in several medical organizations (FRCPC, FACP, etc.), pushed for reform of medical teaching methods, and convinced two medical schools to send students to Thunder Bay as part of the Northern Ontario Medical Program, with local doctors acting as preceptors. His ultimate goal, to establish a medical school in Northern Ontario, came to pass in 2005.

 

This book provides glimpses into the lives of the upper crust of Ontario society in the first half of the 20th century. It is based partly on a five year diary the subject kept before and during the time he attended medical school. Readers interested in the development of medical training, or the history of Kitchener-Waterloo or Thunder Bay will be rewarded.” —M. McGown​​