Psychiatrist.
Born at Winnipeg on 28 December 1923, son of William James Sisler and Agnes Ellen Martin (1899-1981), he was educated at Elmwood schools and graduated from St. Johns Technical High School in 1940, receiving a Governor General’s Medal and Isbister Scholarship. He received a medical degree from the University of Manitoba in 1946. After residencies at the Winnipeg General Hospital and the Psychopathic Hospital, he trained in the graduate programme of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Louisville, Kentucky.
In 1954, following a brief period as clinical director at the Psychopathic Hospital and as demonstrator in the Department of Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine, he was appointed Professor and Founding Head of the Department of Psychiatry of the Winnipeg General Hospital (later the Health Sciences Centre). He held these positions until 1975. Following retirement as Department Head he continued until 1989 as a full time professor and as a member of the clinical and teaching staff of the Health Sciences Centre and other city hospitals. He served on the Senate of the University of Manitoba, the Faculty of Medicine Council Executive, the Executive of the Board of the Health Sciences Centre, the Council for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, the Executive of the Manitoba Medical Association, the Medical Council of Canada and the examination board of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He served as chair of the Board of Westminster United Church and as first chair of its Day Care Centre.
On 18 September 1948, he married Berenice Barbara Warne and they had two children.
He died at Winnipeg on 30 January 2002. He is commemorated by a plaque at Strathcona School.
“Two are hostesses for Berenice Warne,” Winnipeg Free Press, 16 September 1948, page 14.
“Psychiatry department opened,” Winnipeg Free Press, 1 November 1954, page 4.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 2 February 2002.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 17 April 2023
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