Fonds MS-2-750 - Robert Weil fonds

Dr. Robert Weil, MD, LMCC, FRCP, FAPA, FACP, was born on 16 November 1909 in Vimperk (Winterberg), in what is now Czechoslovakia. He graduated from the German University of Prague's Medical Faculty in 1929 and served as a medical officer in the Czechslovakian Army until 1935, when he went into general practice. He and his wife, Stella, who was also a doctor, left their home in Graupen for Prague, then for Great Britain and finally for Canada in 1939. He practised general medicine in northern Saskatchewan until 1942, when he began working with the Saskatchewan Mental Health Services. His work with other pioneers helped move towards the provision of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, of which he was a founding member in 1950 and President in 1968. He interned in neurosurgery at the Saskatoon City Hospital from 1944-1945, worked at the Menninger School of Psychiatry in Topeka, Kansas, from 1949-1950, and was a Research Assistant in the Department of Sociology at Warne State University in Detroit, Michigan, in 1950.

Weil came to the Department of Psychiatry at Dalhousie University in 1950, an appointment from which he retired in 1975 as Associate Professor. He continued in private practice, including work with veterans at Camp Hill Hospital. He was involved with numerous psychiatric associations, and participated in national and international conferences. His research and published writing covered a wide variety of subjects. He was involved with the commission studying the 1958 Springhill Mining Disaster, interviewing survivors and analyzing the incident's impact on the community.

He died on 6 May 2002 at the age of 92, survived by his wife, but predeceased by his only child, Sonja Weil.