Dr David Millar Norwell, 1919–2015

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 57, No. 7, September 2015, Page 306 Obituaries
By: William Gardner, MBChB,

portrait of the late Dr. Norwell
Dr David Millar Norwell was born on 2 May 1919 in Kilmarnock, Scotland, and died on 23 May 2015 in McBride, BC. David was the second youngest of four boys and two girls. All the boys, graduates of Glasgow University, became family physicians.

Dr Norwell worked briefly in a law office before joining the British Army to serve much of the Second World War in India. We met in 1946 when we both started studying medicine in Glasgow. David graduated in 1951 and moved to Vancouver in 1953. I admired his courage and dedication to his art when he decided, after a few years in family practice in North Vancouver, to follow his passion by studying music at UBC. But while music fed his soul, medicine fed his family, and 2 years later he returned to family practice. In subsequent years Dr Norwell was active in composing, performing, and producing music.

After retirement in the 1990s David moved to Valemount, where his family lived. He never lost his love of learning and continued well into his 90s to be engaged in the community as a musician and graphic artist. An interview with Dr Norwell from 2010, produced by Valemount Community TV, can be seen on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmgLzsmSua8.

Dr Norwell is survived by his wife, Jane; children, Liz, Robert, and Janey; and seven grandchildren.
—W. Gardner, MBChB
West Vancouver

William Gardner, MBChB,. Dr David Millar Norwell, 1919–2015. BCMJ, Vol. 57, No. 7, September, 2015, Page(s) 306 - Obituaries.


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