Dr. Gerald McKenzie, "Gerry"

Gerald Malcolm McKenzie BSc, MSc, PhD, Capt. (Canadian Army, Retd.) 1936-2022

Born in New Glasgow (1936) the son of the late Elta (Langille) and Malcolm McKenzie. Survived by his wife Beverley (Bertrand), sons (Malcolm) Grant, David, Daniel, and daughters Gail, Renee, grandchildren Matthew, Julie, Janice, Alex, Erika, Jason, Emily, Hannah, great grandchildren Mateo, Roman, sister Jacqueline (UK), and brother Orland (USA). Predeceased by sister Lynda (UK).

Born a Farmer

Once a Soldier

Thence a Scholar

A Dedicated Teacher

Wonderful Husband

Loving Father

A Humorous Fellow

Fun to Live With

A Generous Man

My Husband

Our Dad

Our Grampy

Orphaned at the age of eighteen months and raised by his widowed grand mother and her family of nine on the farm in Malagash, he learned at    a very early age the value of hard work and he and his uncle Bill were the last of the horse-powered famers in Malagash. A graduate of Tatamagouche High School, where he received numerous awards both academic and athletic including the highest award given by the school at the time, the Birks Medal for academic achievement.

On the heels of the great depression and the second world war money was scarce. Academic bursaries and scholarships were small and few and far between. With $1000 from his Aunt Greta McKenzie and a steady seven-nights-a-week job at a local restaurant, Gerald commenced his distinguished career. At Acadia University he studied engineering and geology and then transferred to Assumption University, Windsor, Ontario to graduate with a BSc in Chemistry. Following a seven-year career in the Canadian Armed Forces, Gerald married his loving wife Beverley and returned to university to earn his MSc in Pharmacology and PhD in Physiology at Dalhousie University.

Dr. McKenzie had a distinguished research career and is credited with the timely and critical discovery that dopamine is released from nerve cells in the brain, and that L-Dopa increased the release of dopamine. After receiving his doctorate degree, he joined Eaton Laboratories in Norwich, New York, to help develop L-Dopa for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. L-Dopa is still the drug treatment of choice for Parkinson's. He then joined the Burroughs Wellcome Company, a nonprofit pharmaceutical company, to direct research on the central nervous system at laboratories located in the Research Triangle Park, Raleigh, North Carolina and Beckenham, Kent, England. While at Burroughs he introduced the concept of direct-acting chemical agents which would directly stimulate dopamine receptors in the brain and then discovered several drugs which held great promise as anti-Parkinson drugs. He is co author on several patents on these drugs. At Burroughs he helped develop Wellbutrin, a popular antidepressant drug, and was the youngest researcher in the history of the company to be promoted to Group Leader. He was subsequently recruited by Smith Kline and French Laboratories in Philadelphia, and as Associate Director of Pharmacology, he continued his pioneering research on drugs to treat Parkinson's and Schizophrenia (another disease involving dopamine), eventually resulting in the development of Ropinirole for the treatment of Parkinson's.

His love of teaching drew him back to academia and in 1975 he joined the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University. A dedicated and innovative teacher who was often characterized by his students as "tough but fair", he will be remembered by thousands of students not only for his dedication but also for his approachable and good-humored nature, attributes not often found in university faculty.

He held academic appointments at Columbia University, New York, and Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, and was a member of the following scientific societies: Pharmacological Society of Canada, American Pharmacology Society, American Chemical Society, New York Academy of Sciences, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Founding Member and Life Member of the Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology. He lectured widely in United States, Canada, South America, and Europe on topics related to dopamine, Parkinson's disease, and Schizophrenia, and was considered a world authority on these subjects.

After leaving the pharmaceutical industry he continued to consult for several companies on scientific matters involving drugs and the central nervous system, and to consult for the University of New Brunswick and the New Brunswick Commission on Drug Dependency on issues relating to drug dependance. In addition, he served on many National Committees at Health and Welfare, Ottawa, Canada. Throughout his career he served as consulting pharmacologist for many individuals, companies, organizations, and government departments in the Maritime provinces, Ontario and Maine, USA.

Gerald was an exceptional athlete excelling in basketball, baseball, soccer, track and field and hockey and was a perennial winner of the "Athlete of the Year" award in high school. He played varsity soccer and hockey at Acadia University, junior hockey with the Berwick Apple Kings and professional hockey in the Ontario Hockey League. When reminiscing about his hockey days, he would muse that he never had hockey gear before arriving at Acadia try-out camp. He was a goaltender, nevertheless, using magazines for leg and breast protection and a baseball mitt to catch pucks. He never set foot on artificial ice or in a hockey arena until he arrived at Acadia. While serving in the armed forces in Halifax he played for the General Bakery in Halifax and District Fastball League and with the Tri-Service Hockey League. He was a student of the martial arts studying Tae Kwon Do under Masters Carabins of Halifax and Lee of South Korea. He loved downhill skiing and was an accomplished windsurfer, enjoying both sports until the age of 75. At the age of 80, Gerald become the oldest Mud Hero in Canada, having conquered the 2016 Halifax Mud Hero event, placing first in the 70 and over category. His athletic prowess undoubtedly contributed to his longevity.

Despite his busy schedule, Dr. McKenzie found time to be active in community affairs. He served as councilor for the town of Bedford before moving onto the family farm in Malagash in 1980 where his accomplishments are many. To list a few: formation of a community association; formation of a senior, midget and junior baseball teams, formation of a midget and senior baseball leagues; built and maintained a class baseball field; organized the community to buy the old salt mine site, fill-in the mine shaft and thereby block the projected use of the mine as a hazardous waste dump, notably, radioactive waste, and in this regard, in the words of his friends and colleague, the late Nobel laureate Dr. William Boyle, "The people of Malagash will never fully appreciate what a very huge favor you have done for them."; led the fight through the Provincial Court to block the closure of the community school; single handily stopped the spraying of herbicides along highway ditches in Cumberland Country, a decision which quickly spread across the province; served free of charge as consulting pharmacologist for the class-action led by Ms. Elizabeth May (leader of the federal Green Party) and the Mi'kmaw Community, to cease aerial spraying of herbicides in Cape Breton and elsewhere; he gave of his time to lecture community groups, government agencies and royal commissions on the health and environmental hazards of the use of 2,4-D and 2,3,4-T and other pesticides.

Gerald never lost his love for the land and farming. He was a prolific gardener and grew most of his fruits and vegetables. For many years he was a successful producer of ginseng, selling most of his product in Jakarta under the name 'First Plant', and was the only known organic ginseng -grower in North America.

Gerald was a gifted musician, a trait passed down from his mother and in turn passed on to his children. His music career began at home in the evenings sitting beside the old wood stove playing guitar and singing with his uncle Bill. At Acadia University he played mandolin with a group of engineering students on the local radio station in Kentville, N.S., later joining Urban and the Rodeo Boys and appearing on Moncton Television with The Bunkhouse Boys and with Don Messer and his Islanders. To help finance his education, he played mandolin and bass in the clubs and dancehalls in Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan, and on several occasions jammed with the likes of singing great Red Folly and the great banjo picker Lester Flatts. In North Carolina, USA, he played tenor banjo with the Capital City Five, a jazz band led by the nationally renowned pianist, Thomas Shea, and specializing in the music of the work famous composer Scot Joplin.

Returning to Nova Scotia, Gerald played bass for the Halifax bluegrass band Seldom Scene and then moved to Malagash where he played violin with several local bands and eventually in his own band, Home Grown Country. He and his young family of five (by then trained and accomplished musicians) performed free of charge and at their own expense throughout northern and central Nova Scotia. Known as 'Gerry and the Kids', they opened the first ever River John Days, performed many concerts to raise funds for community projects, entertained seniors homes, provided entertainment for school graduation ceremonies, played for community New Year's celebrations, appeared on Atlantic TV musical shows and the children became the center-piece for the Neighborhood Kids, a thirty member concert band directed by Mr. Harry Jackson, the Jackson School of Music, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

He tutored many high school and community college students free of charge and was often approached by residents of Cumberland Country for advice and help on numerous topics and personal problems. He twice refused to let his name be submitted of the Order of Nova Scotia as local residents tried to show their appreciation.

He loved his children and grandchildren.

He loved his wife of 60 years.

His life made a difference.