Bliss, John William Michael

  • From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: See full biography at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bliss
  • Wiki profile notes:
    • John William Michael Bliss OC FRSC (January 18, 1941 – May 18, 2017) was a Canadian historian and author. Though his early works focused on business and political history, he also wrote biographies of physicians Frederick Banting, William Osler and Harvey Cushing. Bliss was a frequent commentator on political events and issues. He was an Officer of the Order of Canada.
    • Michael Bliss was born on January 18, 1941, in Leamington, Ontario, Bliss was raised in nearby Kingsville, Ontario. His father, Quartus Bliss, was a Kingsville-based physician who encouraged Michael to enter the medical field.
    • Bliss entered the University of Toronto in 1958, and received his Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees there. He was appointed to the faculty in 1968 and by the time of his retirement in 2006 had attained the elite rank of University Professor.
    • His doctoral dissertation, which was supervised by Ramsay Cook, was a social history of Canadian business, an analysis of the “thoughts and dreams” of businessmen in Canada during the National Policy years. It was published under the title A Living Profit. In 1978 he published a major biography of Sir Joseph Flavelle, “A Canadian Millionaire”, and in 1987 the first history of business in Canada, “Northern Enterprise”.
    • In 1982, he began a mid-career transition to medical history with his book “The Discovery of Insulin”. This 1982 book was the basis for the award-winning Glory Enough for All, a 1988 Canadian television movie. He has published biographies of two Canadians, the discoverer of insulin Sir Frederick Banting and the famous physician Sir William Osler. In 2005, he published a biography of the American neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing, himself also a biographer of Osler.
    • In 1998, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Officer in 2013. His books have won various prizes, including the Welch Medal of the American Association for the History of Medicine, the Tyrrell Medal of the Royal Society of Canada, three Jason Hannah Medals of the Royal Society of Canada, the Garneau, Macdonald, and Ferguson prizes of the Canadian Historical Association, and the National Business Book Award. His book on Osler was shorted for the Governor General’s Award. He was an honorary member of the Harvey Club of London, the oldest medical club in Canada, for his historical biographical contributions on Banting, another honorary member of the Harvey Club. He is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and holds honorary degrees from the University of Prince Edward Island, McMaster University, McGill, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Toronto. In 2008 his students published a festschrift, “Essays in Honour of Michael Bliss: Figuring the Social”. In 2016 he became the first historian inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
    • In 2011, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Osler Society in 2010.
  • Fifth Great Grandfather of Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=2282
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