Dr. Charles R. Scriver (1930- ), is a distinguished Montreal pediatrician and geneticist. He was born in Montreal on November 7, 1930 to McGill physicians Dr. Charles Scriver and Dr. Jessie Boyd Scriver. After completing his primary education at the Lower College of Canada, Dr. Scriver earned his Bachelor of Arts cum laude (1951) and M.D.C.M. (1955) in McGill’s Faculty of Medicine, later obtaining clinical training at McGill and Harvard University (1955-58). From 1961 to 1966, Scriver was an appointed Markle Scholar within the Department of Pediatrics, a position which poised him to accept a full professorship of Pediatrics beginning in 1969. During this time, Dr. Scriver helped found the DeBelle Laboratory, a biochemical genetics lab under the Montreal Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Scriver’s work on vitamin D’s impact on newborn metabolic disorders (particularly rickets) during this period led to more stringent screening processes for phenylketonuria (PKU) and hypothyroidism in infants, and to the breakthrough introduction of vitamin D in Quebec grocery store milk. Since the 1960’s, Dr. Scriver’s academic tenure has included many visiting lectureships, six honorary degrees (D.Sc.), and culminated with his eventual post as the Alva Professor Emeritus of Human Genetics in the McGill Faculty of Medicine.

The author of over 600 publications, namesake of the Canadian Gene Cure Foundation’s Scriver MD/PhD Scholarship Program, and editor emeritus across all editions of the authoritative genetics textbook The Metabolic & Molecular Bases of Inherited Disease, Dr. Scriver has served the biogenetics community from within and beyond McGill over his 50-year career. His research interests extend from the metabolic aspects of genetic disease in infants to bioinformatics and population genetics. Scriver’s research in the scientific community is thus situated at the nexus of genetics and pediatrics.

In addition to his august academic career, Dr. Scriver has chaired and participated in a number of local and international boards and organizations in the biogenetics community, including tenures as Director of the Medical Research Council Group in Genetics (until 1994), President of the Society for Pediatric Research (1976), and the Society for Clinical Investigation. He has been accorded several civic awards, including an Officership of the Order of Canada (1985, promoted to Companion in 1995) and Grand Officier de l’ordre du Quebec (1996), and was notably inducted into the Canadian Halls of Fame for Medicine (2001) and Science and Engineering (2001). In 2010, Scriver was awarded the prestigious Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research, the largest international award for pediatric research.

Dr. Scriver met his wife Esther in 1947, with whom he has four children and seven grandchildren. They currently reside in Montreal.

Born in Montréal and educated at McGill University (B.A. 1901; M.D., C.M., 1905) Frank Scrimger served for two years at the Royal Victoria Hospital as house surgeon. In 1909 he went to Berlin and Dresden for advanced study. Upon his return he entered private practice and became an associate of Royal Victoria Hospital. During World War I, he served with the Canadian Army Medical Corps; for his bravery in evacuating sick and wounded during the second battle of Ypres, he was awarded the Victoria Cross. Scrimger returned to medical practice at R.V.H. after the War, and taught surgery in the Faculty of Medicine from 1931 to 1937. At the time of his death, Scrimger was surgeon-in-chief of Royal Victoria Hospital.

Reed Scowen was born on June 13, 1931, in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

He was a prominent Montreal Liberal known as an outspoken defender of the rights of English Quebecers. He did his undergraduate studies in Lennoxville at Bishop's University. In 1956, he completed an MBA at Harvard University. He was President and General Manager of the Canadian paper company Perkins in Laval, Quebec. In 1972, after selling the company, he studied for a year at the London School of Economics. From 1974 to 1978 he worked for the Canadian federal government in Ottawa as Executive Director of the Price Control Program and the Task Force on Canadian Unity. He was a Member of the National Assembly of Quebec representing the provincial riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce from 1978 to 1987. He later acted as an economic adviser to former Premier Robert Bourassa, and as delegate general for Quebec in London, New York, and Washington.

He wrote two books on Quebec politics: “A Different Vision: The English in Quebec in the 1990s,” and “Time to Say Goodbye: Building a Better Canada without Quebec.”

He died on May 28, 2020, in Toronto, Ontario.

Originally incorporated in 1961 under the name “Invergordon Scottish Centre”, the first “Scottish Centre” of Montreal was primarily managed by the Invergordon Camp of the Sons of Scotland Benevolent Association. Over the next few years, members from other Sons of Scotland camps participated in the administration of the Centre and the insurance plans that it offered. Thus, the decision to change the name to “The Scottish Centre of Montreal” was proposed and accepted.

“Invergordon Scottish Centre” was legally changed to “Scottish Centre of Montreal” in 1971. Originally located at 1216 Stanley Street in Montreal, the Scottish Centre moved to 1610 Stephens Avenue in Verdun in the summer of 1989. From 1989 to its closure in January 2018, the Scottish Centre served as a meeting place for various camps of the Sons of Scotland Benevolent Association and served as a location for community functions.

William Scott was born in Pictou, Nova Scotia (New Glasgow) on June 23, 1881. Educated at Montreal High School and brought up in Westmount Quebec, William entered McGill University in September of 1897 at the age of 16. William graduated with a B.A in 1901, and completed McGill’s School of Medicine in 1905. Dr. Scott was Superintendent of St. John's, NB hospital from 1905-1906. In 1906, Dr. Scott worked at the Montreal General Hospital where he met Alfreda Lee “Freda” Jowsey. Born in Eardley Quebec, Freda was in nurse training when she met Dr. William Scott. Freda and William were soon married and decided to do missionary and medical work in China. The couple traveled across the US, to San Francisco, before leaving by boat to join the Canadian Presbyterian Church China Mission. Freda and William completed Missionary work in China from 1907-1912. Their daughter Dorothy Anne Scott was born in China in 1909 and their son Frederick Arthur Scott was born in Montreal in 1914. When back in Canada, Dr. Scott practiced in Notre-Dame-de-Grace (NDG) in Montreal between 1912 and 1917 serving the poor of the community. Tragically, William Scott died of a septic Infection November 25th, 1917.