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Michael Kevin Grace
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Physician.
Born at Aaron, Saskatchewan on 21 November 1923, the third son of Daniel Grace and Catherine Mullen, the family moved to Muenster, Saskatchewan where he attended grades 1-8 in his mother’s one-room schoolhouse and worked on neighbouring farms. He graduated from St. Peters College in 1940 and worked for two years in the shipyards of Prince Rupert. At 18, during the Second World War, he joined the Navy and served in the North Atlantic.
At war’s end, his veterans’ benefits allowed him to enter the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. He worked summers as a medical officer for Sea Cadets, and as a guide in the Lake of the Woods, until he graduated in 1952. The next year, he began a general medical practice at Transcona. He was Transcona’s Medical Health Officer in the 1950s. He also worked at the St. Boniface Hospital and Concordia Hospital, and served as the medical director of the latter. He retired in 1998, after 46 years of practice.
On 9 June 1951, he married Dr. Joyce Lorraine Findlay (1927-2020, daughter of Thomas Burns Findlay) at St. Mary's Cathedral and they had four sons and four daughters. He was active in the Knights of Columbus and numerous Catholic church committees. His discussions of sexuality in marriage during classes for those intending to marry were published as the book A Joyful Meeting in 1980. In the 1960s he was involved in the construction of the Villa Maria Retreat House in St. Norbert. In 1968 he led a group of parents in successfully lobbying for French immersion education in Transcona. Since 1973, he was involved in L’Arche, serving on the board for 19 years, sometimes as Chairman. He coached hockey and baseball for many years.
He died at Winnipeg on 22 April 2009 and was buried in the Transcona Cemetery.
“Dr. Joyce L. Findlay weds M. K. Grace at St. Mary's,” Winnipeg Free Press, 9 June 1951, page 16.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 25 April 2009.
“The ’09 honour roll,” Winnipeg Free Press, 2 January 2010, page H4.
Obituary [Joyce Lorraine Grace], Winnipeg Free Press, 4 March 2020.
We thank Christopher Adams for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 14 October 2024
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