Lögberg-Heimskringla - 11.02.1994, Blaðsíða 6

6 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 11. febrúar 1994
Canada’s oldest female physician
r
r-N
Dr. Stuart Houston and his mother, Dr. Sigga Houston.
by Jill Rafuse
Canadlan Medical Association
Journal
Résumé: Femme médecin la
plus ágée du Canada, le Dr
Sigga Christianson Houston
a célébré son lOOe anniver-
saire de naissance en juin.
Avec son mari, Clarence, elle
a exercé la médecine en
Saskatchewan pendant 50
ans, se spécialisant en pédia-
trie et en gynécologie. Elle
est á la retraite depuis 1975.
Dr. Sigridur (Sigga)
Christianson Hous-
ton, who practised
medicine in Saskatchewan for
half a century before she
retired in 1975, became part
of a small band of senior
Canadian physicians on June
28 when she celebrated her
lOOth birthday in Saskatoon.
Described by her son, Dr.
Stuart Houston of Saskatoon,
as “a determined, strong-
willed woman who is living
proof that Icelanders are
tough,” she is Canada’s oldest
female physician.
Born in Grand Forks,
ND, Sigga Houston was the
second of four children bom
to Geir and Sesselja Christ-
ianson, immigrants from
Iceland. Her father was a
carpenter who, lured by free
land, brought his family to
homestead in Saskatchewan
in 1905.
She completed Grade 8
there, but because there was
no high school nearby she
Manitoba.
Karla is in fourth year,
Faculty of Human Ecology,
University of Manitoba, in a
child centered program.
She is on the Dean’s
Honour List and her marks
are consistently high.
Karla is on the Advisory
Committee at the Child
Development Centre at the
University. For practical
training, she volunteers at
the Child Care Centre and
also at a school in Fort
Garry.
She was the unanimous
choice of the University
Selection Committee to
receive this scholarship.
7 The E. J.
Benjaminson IODE
Memoríal Scholarship
This scholarship was pre-
sented to Leif Sigurdson of
Winnipeg who is presently in
first year, Faculty of Science,
accepted the offer of a family
acquaintance who ran a
boarding house in Winnipeg,
and moved to Manitoba. She
prepared meals for boarders,
and was able to attend
school and complete her
studies as well. She then
enrolled in normal school in
Saskatoon, graduating in
1914. During World War I
she taught in rural Sask-
atchewan, saving enough
money to finance her educa-
tion at the University of
Manitoba. After a year of
premed courses, she became
one of 13 women accepted
into the College of Medicine.
She eamed tuition money by
teaching during the summer
months, and graduated in
1925; there were nine other
University of Manitoba.
Leif attended St John’s
Ravenscourt where standards
are very high and consistent-
ly raised his marks every
year.
He is an Honours student
with great strength in
Economics and Mathe-
matics.
Leif has also been
involved in many sports. A
fine athlete, he has received
numerous awards.
Recommendations
include such statements as:
“Leif’s attitude is positive
and insights are generally
interesting and original... he
is diligent, pleasant, thought-
ful and sincere.”
Leif is the son of Eric and
Jean Sigurdson, grandson of
Baldur Sigurdson. Leif cred-
its them with passing on an
appreciation for his heritage.
Rose Clyde
Education Secretary
Jón Sigurðsson Chapter, IODE
women in a graduating class
of 55 physicians.
After graduation, she
worked for a year in a sana-
torium at Fort Wayne, Ind.,
before marrying Clarence J.
Houston, who was in the
medical class behind her.
They practised for 13 months
in Watford City, ND, where
their only child was born,
and then moved to Yorkton,
Sask.
igga and Clarence
Houston established a
general practice there
— he did surgery and made
hospital visits, and she con-
centrated on the office prac-
tice, pediatrics and gynecolo-
gy. “It was quite a novelty for
a woman to see a woman
doctor then,” Stuart Houston
said in a recent interview,
“and she had phenomenal
success with children who
didn’t thrive.”
She loved her practice,
and her reputation grew;
sickly children and infants
from 100 miles away were
referred to her, and were
often put on a special formu-
la. She also worked as office
manager for the medical
practice. Bills were sent to
patients just once a year,
after harvest; unlike his
father, chuckled Stuart
Houston, his mother had no
compunction about asking
for payment for medical ser-
vices rendered.
When more physicians
came to Yorkton at the end
of World War II, Sigga
Houston reduced her office
hours, but continued to han-
dle the monetary affairs of
the three-doctor firm until
she retired after 50 years of
practice. (She was 82 years
old at the time, although
everyone believed she was
only 75, the age she gave on
her official documents,
including her hospital card.
In 1926 it would have been
socially unacceptable for a
woman to marry a man 7
years younger, so she kept
her age a secret until she
tumed 90 in 1983.)
Her husband died of
Alzheimer’s disease in 1986.
Stuart Houston recalls that
his father’s illness devastated
his mother and changed her
personality dramatically.
“She worshipped my father,”
he said. “She switched from
being a domineering, strong-
willed woman to a passive,
agreeable person who has
become one of the most pop-
ular patients in the nursing
home. The old Sigga
Houston would have driven
them crazy.”
Today, her son reports,
her hearing has failed and
her memory is spotty, but
she is doing extremely well
physically. She celebrated
her lOOth birthday in the
company of family and
friends — and a seven-layer
ceremonial Icelandic cake.
An article in the Saskatoon
Star Phoenix noted that she
still wears bright red nail
polish.
esides her career con-
tribution to rural
medicine in Saskat-
chewan, she has influenced
the course of medicine in
another significant way:
through her own family.
Stuart Houston became a
radiologist — he is now pro-
fessor of medical imaging at
the University of Sask-
atchewan — and three of his
four children have medical
degrees. He believes his
mother was a tremendous
role model for his daughter,
Margaret, who now practis-
es at the Mayo Clinic in
Minnesota.
“She saw that if a woman
like Sigga Houston could
confront all the difficulties
she did to become a physi-
cian in the 1920s, she could
do it too.”
Sigga Houston is "a
determined, strong-willed
woman who is living proof that
lcelanders are tough. ”
Jill Rafuse is an assistant
editor in CMAJ’s news and
features section.
Submitted by George Johnson
PCB contamination in
lcelandic gyrfaicons
Atwo-year study of
Icelandic gyrfalcons
has revealed substan-
tial PCB contamination of
the birds and concentrations
of other poisonous sub-
stances.
According to biochemist
Kristin Ólafsdóttir, who
made public her findings at a
recent international confer-
ence in Reykjavik on the
effects of wind-borne pollu-
tion on northerly ecologies,
from 0.1-232mg/kg of PCB
was found in flesh samples of
59 gyrfalcons.
In addition, DDE, which
results from the decomposi-
tion of the now-banned
insecticide DDT, and hexa-
chlorobenzene were also dis-
covered.
The latter substance is
widely used to protect timber
from rotting.
Ólafsdóttir said that much
higher concentrations of
PCB were found in older gyr-
falcons, or up to ten times
levels found in younger birds.
The biochemist added that
much smaller traces of the
carcinogen were found in
Icelandic eider ducks but
that Icelandic ptarmigans
proved free of the menacing
pollutant.
PCB, DDT and other sub-
stances displayed undesirable
effects on animal reproduc-
tion and growth, Ólafsdóttir
related, adding that her
results called for a more
comprehensive study of pol-
lution levels both on land
and along Iceland’s coastline.
COURTESY NEWS FROM ICELAND
IODE Scholarships, Contd