William Harding le Riche

William Harding le Riche was born on March 21, 1916 in Dewetsdorp, Orange Free State, South Africa, to American parents who were missionaries. He graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg with a BSc in 1936, an MBChB in 1943, and an MD in 1949. He received a Carnegie Research Grant from 1937 to 1939 and a Rockefeller Fellowship to study at Harvard University, where he obtained an MPH in 1950. He worked as a health officer in South Africa, where he established the first non-segregated health centre in Knysna and conducted research on tuberculosis and polio. He moved to Canada in 1952 and worked as a consultant in epidemiology for the Department of National Health and Welfare in Ottawa and as a research medical officer for Physicians Services Incorporated in Toronto. He joined the University of Toronto in 1959 as a professor of public health and became the head of the Department of Epidemiology in 1962. He retired in 1982 as a professor emeritus. He taught and mentored many students and researchers in the field of epidemiology and published over 100 scientific papers and reports. He also wrote a memoir, The Memoirs of Dr W. Harding le Riche, in four volumes. He received many awards and honours for his work, including the Order of Canada in 1988, the Defries Medal from the Canadian Public Health Association in 1989, and the honorary membership of the same association in 1990. He died on December 31, 2010 in Toronto, Ontario, at the age of 94. He is remembered as one of the founders of the field of epidemiology in Canada and a pioneer of public health in South Africa and Canada.