“It is a melancholy pleasure to record also our indebtedness to Mr. Ross for much help and advice given as a member of the governing body of the university, especially in the department of mechanical engineering. Besides being a great and experienced engineer, he was a patron also of the arts and sciences. He took an active interest also in the well-being of our hospitals, and as they are in a sense university institutions, his bequests to the Royal Victoria and Maternity Hospitals may be cited here as additional reasons for gratitude. He was a man of high artistic culture, one who ‘loved that beauty should go beautifully.’ Mere splendor without taste would always have been repellent to him. Perhaps his best memorial, apart from the magnificent collection of pictures which he got together with such care and discrimination, and which was the joy and pride of his wide circle of friends, will be the beautiful building on Sherbrooke Street to which he has contributed so largely as the permanent home of the Art Association. Such men lend valuable aid in the way of enabling a community to realize some aspects of its higher self.”
WALTER R. L. SHANKS.
Among the younger members of the well known and distinguished law firm of Brown, Montgomery & McMichael, advocates and barristers, is Walter R. L. Shanks. He was born March 20, 1886, at Millers Falls, Massachusetts. In 1908 he received from McGill University the Bachelor of Arts degree and in 1911 that of Bachelor of Civil Law. In July of that year he was admitted to the bar and has since been a member of the above firm. Mr. Shanks is a young lawyer of promise, and it may be said that his ability—or such ability as his opportunities have permitted him to demonstrate—entitles him to be included among those young men to whom the future holds out rich fields along professional lines. Mr. Shanks is socially popular and is a member of the University Club of Montreal and the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.
GEORGE ALEXANDER BROWN, M. D.
George Alexander Brown, M. D., one of the best known physicians of Montreal, his powers developing through the exercise of effort, was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on the 28th of June, 1866. The Browns are one of the old families on that island and representatives of the name in different generations have been prominently identified with professional interests. The paternal grandfather of Dr. Brown was president of the Prince of Wales College, while the maternal grandfather was the leader of the government in Charlottetown for twenty-one years.
Reared in the place of his nativity, Dr. Brown pursued his early education in St. Peters Boys’ School and subsequently continued his studies in Kings College University at Windsor, Nova Scotia. The classical course which he there pursued constituted the foundation upon which he built the superstructure of professional learning. Entering McGill University, he won the degrees of M. D. and C. M. from that institution where he graduated with the class of 1889. During the succeeding year and a half he was resident physician of the Montreal General Hospital, thus putting his theoretical knowledge to the practical test and gaining that broad and valuable experience which only hospital practice can give. For more than twenty years Dr. Brown has successfully followed his profession in Montreal and in addition to an extensive private practice is acting as physician to the Montreal Dispensary and is in charge of the tubercular clinic. He has been a close and constant student of his profession, interested in all that tends to bring to man the key to the complex mystery which we call life and his own investigations and research have resulted in bringing to light some valuable truths.
In February, 1906, he submitted to the Montreal Medico-Chirurgical Society, a new treatment for consumption which he has used in his practice with great success. This consists of the injection into the human system of a solution principally of iodine and in April, 1912, he read before the International Tubercular Congress at Rome, Italy, a paper upon this treatment. He is a member of the Montreal Medical Society and keeps in close touch with the advanced work that is being done by fellow members of the profession through the perusal of medical journals and the latest contributions to medical literature as well as through his connection with medical societies.
Dr. Brown was united in marriage to Mrs. Elizabeth (Conroy) Muldoon of Watertown, who by her former marriage had two children, William and Ella. Dr. and Mrs. Brown have become the parents of two children, Elsie and Basil. They have a wide acquaintance socially and are connected with the Unitarian Society, while Dr. Brown is also a member of the University Club. Year by year has marked his steady progress in his profession, and today his position of prominence is accorded him by the consensus of opinion on the part of colleagues and contemporaries.