DWIGHT PARKSINSON, M.D.
NEUROSURGERY
418 MEDICAL ARTS BUILDING
WINNIPEG

February 11th, 1967.

R. L. Imler, Jr., M.D.,
Ste. 107.
Utica Square Medical Center,
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74114,
U.S.A

Dear Dr. Imler:

Many thanks for your kind words concerning the Gavel. I wish I could say I made it myself but I’m afraid that I don’t have that skill. It was made commercially but the wood did come from the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada building in Ottawa. The correspondence concerning this was left on the podium at the time I made the presentation. I remember stating at the time to the Chairman that he could keep that if he wished, that it might be of some historical value to them some time. It consists of my original letter to James Graham who is the Secretary of the Royal College and was a classmate of mine at McGill. I told him how honored I had been to be invited to your inaugural meeting as a guest speaker and that I would like to present you with a gavel made from wood from the Royal College Building if any was available. Jim Graham got into the spirit of the thing and thought this was an excellent idea and got some pieces of wood including some from the staircase of the old building and I think it was these pieces that were actually used for the gavel. I think there was one or two exchanges of letters between Jim Graham and myself before the package containing the bits of wood actually arrived.

I suspect that whoever was Chairman at that particular time should still have that original correspondence. I cannot remember for certain who it was. Possibly it will be on the Programme but I think that Homer came up to thank me for it and it also seems to me that possibly John Griffin was given the correspondence on the basis of being secretary or treasurer but I am not at all certain about that.

If you are unable to find the correspondence at all I can certainly write to Jim Graham again and find out exactly where the wood came from if this will be of any interest to you, although possibly all you want to know is that it came from the original building of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada.

If I can be of any further help kindly let me know.

Best regards,

Sincerely,

Dwight Parkinson, M.D