Remembering a Giant
5 February 2024
Dr. Richard W. Sherbaniuk
April 11, 1927 – January 8, 2024
By Dr. R. J. Bailey
A Small-town Lad
Richard (Dick) Sherbaniuk was born in Vegreville, Alberta in 1927. He was the oldest of three boys.
Dick went to grade school and high school in Vegreville. When he was in grade school, his leg was injured in an automobile accident. There was talk of amputation, but his mother insisted they try to save the leg and they did. As part of his recovery, Dick spent a fair amount of time in bed, until the leg was well healed. A classmate, Georgina, known to all as Dodie, was kind enough to bring Dick his homework most days. By the time he went to the University of Alberta, Dodie was there as well. They married and together brought five children into the world.
Dick thought journalism was for him. At his Vegreville High School, he ran the school paper. While Dick was in science at the University of Alberta, he was the campus correspondent for the Edmonton Bulletin, a local newspaper. Dick was eventually made their music and drama critic, so he worked and wrote at night. Before long, he became associated with and eventually ran The Gateway, the University of Alberta student newspaper that published twice a week. Thus, along with 44 hours of classes, Edmonton Bulletin and The Gateway, he was busy, really busy. This type of schedule set the stage for the rest of his life.
Medicine Came A-Calling
Dick's career direction changed when he became interested in medicine and thought that was for him, not journalism. Dick commented that he thought working for the newspaper helped him to be a better doctor. As a journalist, he had to interview people. When it came time to take a medical history, he had the basic interview skills.
Dick graduated from the University of Alberta with a BSc in 1948. He received his MD in 1952. He then became a Resident in Pathology for three years and then a Research Fellow in Cardiology until 1956.
By then, Dick had developed a special interest in gastrointestinal disease but the teaching at the time was limited, so he went to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan to study gastroenterology for the next four years.
When Dick returned to Edmonton, he was told by Dr. D. R. Wilson, Head of Medicine and an endocrinologist, that it would be best if he practiced general internal medicine with an interest in gastroenterology; otherwise, he would never make a living. However, Dr. Sherbaniuk wanted to do gastroenterology exclusively, and that's what he did.
Building a Mountain from a Molehill
When Dick thought he would like to start research in gastroenterology at the university, he was told to take a Saturday afternoon off, look around the hospital in every nook and cranny including the basement, find a closet that wasn't used, and that would be his research lab. He would be given $1,500 a year of support.
Not long after Dick was in practice, Dr. Ron Wensel, who graduated from the U of A and studied medicine and gastroenterology in Seattle, Washington with Dr. Cy Ruben, returned to Edmonton. Ron and Dick established the Division of Gastroenterology which signaled a specialty separate from general internal medicine. The two gastroenterologists became so busy with the new specialty, that they were frequently consulted at every hospital in Edmonton.
Eventually, the division recruited Dr. Fred Weinstein, a small-town Saskatchewan boy and a Queen’s University graduate, who also studied with Cy Ruben. Fred extended the division's teaching and research.
With Dick as the first divisional director and clinically leading the way, the University of Alberta Division of Gastroenterology became a national powerhouse.
Dick was well-read and very up-to-date on the advances in medicine. He attended all the key gastrointestinal (GI) meetings.
At the end of a usual hospital day, Dick saw patients in his office. For a while, he and Ron shared an office. Ron was a morning person, Dick an afternoon and evening person. There were mornings when Ron would come to work at the office to find Dick asleep at his desk, having seen the last patient of the day at 10 p.m.!
Dr. Sherbaniuk was not only a force in developing gastroenterology in Alberta, but he also was a major contributor to the establishment of gastroenterology in Canada.
In June 1961, he attended the first meeting of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG) at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. There were about 30 people in attendance. In June of 1962, at the Fort Gary Hotel in Winnipeg, the CAG had their first official annual meeting. Along with ten others, Richard W. Sherbaniuk has his signature on the minutes of the founding meeting.
During his active practicing life in gastroenterology, he learned, established and taught gastroenterology and gastrointestinal endoscopy, gastroscopy, colonoscopy and Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography (a.k.a. ERCP).
Servant of the Community
If he wasn’t busy enough with medical practice and his active family, Dick was also very involved in the general medical community as a leader. Here are some of pivotal roles he played in giving back to his community:
- Counselor of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and eventually became their president.
- Member of the Fees Committee for the Alberta Society of Specialists and Internal Medicine.
- President of the Alberta Society of Specialists and Internal Medicine
- Member of the Educational Committee for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons.
- Representative for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta to the Federation of Provincial Medical Licensing.
- Member of the Health Discipline Board of the Alberta Government.
- Member of the selection committee for the Dean of Medicine at the University of Calgary.
- Advisor to the Government of Alberta's Minister of Hospitals.
- Member of Council for the Canadian Medical Protective Association.
- Investment Committee Chairman of the Canadian Medical Protective Association.
- Founding member of the committee on gastrointestinal examinations for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons.
- Founding member of the Governing Board of the Committee in Endoscopy for the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology.
- President of the Medical Staff at the University of Alberta.
- President of the Alberta Society of Gastroenterology (ASG).
Dick’s curriculum vitae lists no end of scientific publications, abstracts, research projects, and clinical trials as a principal investigator and co-investigator. In his spare time, Dr. Sherbaniuk presented numerous scientific addresses. He told me when he returned to the University of Alberta in 1960 and was the only gastroenterologist in Alberta, he gave lectures three to five times a month. These included talks to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, the Liberal Party Convention regarding Health Care in Canada and Conditions Leading to Ostomies for the Canadian Cancer Society.
In 2000, Dr. Sherbaniuk received both the Alberta Society of Gastroenterology Service Award and the Canadian Medical Association Award for Excellence in Gastroenterology.
This January, at the age of 96, Dick’s body ran out of energy, and he passed away.
What a man.
What a contributor to Edmonton’s, Alberta’s and Canada’s gastroenterology population-learners and patients.
From February 5 to 8, the University of Alberta banner (flag) will be flown at half-mast in remembrance of Dr. Sherbaniuk.
For a special viewing of Dick in action, watch the documentary, On the Shoulders of Giants.