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Dr. Leon Richard, a past president of both the CMA and New Brunswick Medical Society, died in Moncton, NB, Dec. 20. He was 74. He served as CMA president in 1981-82, a volatile time because a recession was gathering strength and the country was entering the financial doldrums.
A well-know ophthalmologist, Dr. Richard sounded a warning about the medicare system in a 1981 interview with CMAJ. He argued that the future well-being of the medical profession would not be assured by dismantling medicare. Instead, he said, the medical profession would be made stronger if medicare could be made to work more effectively. "Dr. Leon Richard will bring to the presidency a quiet and determined diplomacy, a subtle and finely honed wit, and the bilingualism of an Acadian heritage of which he is extremely proud," the article concluded.
Dr. Richard, the University of Moncton chancellor, was director of the Dr. Leon Richard Oncology Centre at the Georges-L. Dumont Hospital and a member of the Order of Canada. He is survived by his wife, Pierrette, and...