Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
MacKay, Robert William Murray
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1902-1977
History
Robert William "Murray" MacKay was a professor of psychiatry at Dalhousie University and superintendent of the Nova Scotia Hospital. Born in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, on 17 February 1902, he was educated at West Branch Elementary School, Pictou Academy and Dalhousie Medical School, graduating in 1928. He studied psychiatry at Brandon Mental Hospital in Manitoba and at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, MI. In 1931 MacKay returned to Halifax for a position as Assistant Superintendent of the Nova Scotia Hospital. He was appointed Acting Superintendent in 1935 and Administrator-Superintendent in 1937, a post he held until his retirement in 1967. He lectured on psychiatry at the Faculty of Medicine until 1940, when the department was founded and he became a full-time professor. Dr. MacKay was a member of Canadian and American psychiatric associations, a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and a member of the Board of Governors of Pine Hill Divinity Hall. The Nova Scotia Hospital named the Children's Unit after Murray MacKay following his retirement. He died on 9 May 1977.