Katherine Dawson Ketchum (born Katherine Dawson) was born on July 8, 1903, in Montreal, and died on October 20, 1990, in Toronto. She was the daughter of Arthur Osborne Dawson and Mary Agnes LeRossignol. On July 12, 1934, she married John Davidson Ketchum in Montreal, who was a Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto. They had at least one son. Ketchum graduated from McGill in Medicine in 1931 and was the first woman to receive the Holmes Gold Medal in 1931.