Striking Medical Tribute to Late Dr. W.K. Colbeck

[Welland Tribune November 20, 1951]

“Canada has lost a great physician in the person of Dr. W. Kirk Colbeck, and the citizens of Welland county have lost a great friend and one of the really outstanding members of the healing profession of his generation.” Said Dr. D.C. MacNeill, president of the Welland County General Hospital Medical association today.

On behalf of the medical association, Dr. MacNeill paid marked tribute to Dr. Colbeck who passed away early today in his 74^th year.

Right from his earliest years of practice Dr. Colbeck’s approach to medicine has been that of the pioneer. He kept abreast with all recent advances in medicine and was among the first doctors in Ontario to use many of the advantages in diagnosis and treatment which have been discovered during his years of practice.

He was among the first in Ontario to use radium in the treatment of cancer and had in his office one of the first X-Ray machines in this part of the country. Very soon after the discovery of insulin he was bringing the advantages of this wonder drug to the diabetic patients in his practice.

Dr Colbeck was always a strong advocate for a larger and better equipped hospital in the community and through his efforts many of the present advantages that the hospital possesses have become realities. He has been tireless in his search for improved equipment and methods in the hospital practice in Welland County General Hospital.

Dr. Colbeck not only used his own abilities to their utmost in healing the sick but imparted his energies to younger men who came to work with him and gained the advantages of his experience. Many of them doctors are still alive and practicing medicine in responsible positions in Canada. Among them are listed Dr. Warner, …

Dr. Streight, chief medical officer and formerly medical officer of Canada Life Assurance Company and Dr. Bedard of Welland. He carried through a long and valued association with the late Dr. W.G. Reive of Welland and had also as associates Dr. Alexander, now of Tillsonburg and Dr. Perkins, who later became professor of medicine at the University of Detroit.

Dr. Colbeck received recognition from organized medicine on many occasions. He was granted the degree of fellow of the American College of Surgeons in recognition of his skill as a surgeon. He was always active in medical bodies and for many years his counsel was respected amongst the leaders of the Ontario Medical and Canadian Medical associations. In recognition of this, he was elected president of the Ontario Medical Association in 1936, the highest honor that can be bestowed on a doctor in Ontario by his confreres.

To the doctors of Welland County Dr. Colbeck had always been a friend and advisor. He was the dean of doctors in this district and young men starting out in his profession owes much of their success to Dr. Colbeck’s counsel and help.

His energies were unbounded and he saw more sick people perhaps than any other doctor of his generation and rendered more benefit in his treatment of his patients.

During the Second World War he gave his time and energy unfailingly to fill in the gaps left in this district by members of the profession who had enlisted to maintain the standard of civilian medicine.

He was a man of many interests and found time in his busy life to serve on many public projects and boards, being particularly interested in welfare organizations in Welland county. He was a moving spirit in the engineering of the Welland-Crowland arena. His efforts in such fields of public service prove to everyone that he was more than just a great physician, he was a great citizen of Canada.

The doctors of Welland county will feel a great loss at his passing and will miss beyond all telling his advice in medical matters and his organizing ability. The citizens of Welland particularly, his patients will mourn him as long as memory lasts as a great physician, a great counselor and a great friend.