Kelner, Merrijoy: Robin Badgley As I Remember Him
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Robin Badgley As I Remember Him
Merrijoy Kelner
Institute for Life Course and Aging
I first met Robin over a long lunch on a beautiful day in May, at an
attractive restaurant on east 42nd street in New York City. At that time he
was working at the Milbank Foundation, reviewing current health care
research for decision makers. It was the spring of 1967 and I was
completing my Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Toronto. The medical
faculty there had recently been mandated to set up a Behavioural Science
program for first year medical students who they believed were badly in need
of training in how to deal with patients. Robin had been recruited as
chairman, with the responsibility of developing the program from scratch. He
needed to assemble a faculty and create a curriculum.
We talked about the prospect of teaching medical students how society really
works, and how patients experience their illnesses. The challenge was to
build a curriculum based on existing social science research that would help
future doctors to practice in a more humane fashion. Robin was excited about
the possibilities and as he spoke, I too began to share the vision. By the
end of that lunch we were agreed that I would join him in this new venture.
I left with a list of books and articles that Robin recommended so that I
could become familiar with the literature in a new field called medical
sociology. At least part of the reason I agreed so readily to join him was
the esteem that I developed for Robin. He was not only knowledgeable, but
also gracious and respectful. I was felt that it would be a privilege to
work with him.
The original faculty of Behavioural Science gathered in the fall of 1997 in
an old science building on St Joseph Street, on the far west side of the
campus. The laboratories and sinks were still in the rooms and as we tried
ignore them and continue out work, we were aware that we had a long way to
go to become a legitimate part of the medical faculty. We began with only
three faculty members and a secretary, Sandy Nahon, who looked after us all
and seemed to make everything work. In addition to Robin and me, David
Kemper joined us from his previous faculty post in New York. With
encouragement and guidance from Robin, we began to identify the concepts we
thought should provide the basis of our curriculum. Some of the topics we
considered important included: the notion of the sick role, the
doctor-patient relationship, the influence of social class on health, the
implications of mental illness, and the impact of different cultures on both
healers and patients. Soon others faculty joined us, creating a mixture of
sociologists and psychologists that included scholars like David Coburn,
Ilze Kalnins, Peter New, Elizabeth Cape, Catherine Chalin and Rhonda Love.
At this point in my career I had been lecturing at the university for only
a year and a half. I had a lot to learn about what to teach, and how to
teach it. It was invigorating to share in the creation of a new curriculum,
and the experience was vastly enriched by the knowledge, rigor and
systematic thoughtfulness that Robin brought to the experience. Those early
days were a joy. We were full of idealism and optimism. Little did we
realize that actually teaching medical students would prove to be quite
another kind of venture; much more difficult than we had anticipated. The
first year students we encountered were so concerned about passing their
anatomy and chemistry exams that they has little time or interest in
learning the kinds of things we wanted them to understand. We persevered for
many years, and gradually found better ways to get our message across, but I
never felt that we accomplished everything we initially envisioned.
Nevertheless, those heady days before we understood how challenging our
task would be were gloriously interesting and exciting, and it was Robin who
spearheaded the whole undertaking. Working with him was a pleasure and a
privilege. I shall always be grateful for the way he mentored me when I was
just a fledgling academic. He led more by example than by advising, and he
was always gentle in the way he delivered his suggestions. His scholarly
approach to every issue, no matter how explosive or emotional, demonstrated
the importance of going where the evidence points, even though it may not
agree with one's previous views. is scholarly HI I know there are many
others who have benefited significantly from their association with Robin
and share my keen sense of loss now that he is gone.
When I think about Robin Badgley, I see a cherished colleague who was
always professional, respectful of others, rigorous in his approach to work,
kind to those around him and above all, a man of integrity.
December, 2012