Dr. Clarence Guenter, 1972–1978
Clarence Guenter has always been a man in search of opportunity. Born in Saskatchewan, he hopped one province east to pursue his medical degree at the University of Manitoba, getting his MD in 1961. Guenter stayed on in Winnipeg for additional postgraduate training, including research training in the respiratory laboratory of Dr. Reuben Cherniack.
Guenter was recruited to the University of Oklahoma in 1967 where one of his tasks was to build their respiratory diseases specialist training program. There were few role models at the time and even less specialized equipment, so it really was a case of inventing the wheel. Medical intensive care units were just emerging. Ventilators were primitive and new technologies like automated lung function tests and quick blood gas analysis, were still in development.
In 1972, Guenter returned to Canada with an even bigger task: help the University of Calgary’s new medical school grow into a reputable program. The school was new, the hospital just built and hardly anyone in the country’s medical community believed it would survive.
When he arrived, Calgary’s medical school was still lacking a complete undergraduate curriculum, despite already having students in the program. It also needed a more robust postgraduate Internal Medicine curriculum along with clinical laboratories, an ICU, outpatient clinics and a research program. Guenter and his colleagues had much to do.
Amidst it all, Guenter was charged with establishing the school’s Respiratory Medicine Division and securing its Royal College approval to give legs to the division’s training program. With the help of Dr. David Shaw and a hot shot new recruit from Montreal, Dr. Bill Whitelaw, the team succeeded in their quest. The University of Calgary’s Pulmonary Training Program was approved in 1978. In the meantime, Guenter had also written the textbook Pulmonary Medicine, which became the foremost resource for specialists to use in preparation for their exams.
One interesting challenge had nothing to do with writing textbooks or creating medical programs. During his early years in Calgary, Guenter put forward a motion to the university’s Medical Faculty Council to abolish cigarette smoking within the Medical School buildings. While it may seem like an open and shut case these days, the debate at the time was intense. The Professor and Head of Pathology, a smoker himself, claimed the science clearly established that cigarette smoking was not a health hazard. The motion failed.
Guenter’s career also includes the role of president of the Canadian Thoracic Society (1975–76) and in 1984, he became the only Canadian to be elected president of the American Thoracic Society. At the University of Calgary, Guenter served as head of the Division of Respiratory Medicine, then head of the Department of Medicine, and eventually as President and CEO of the Foothills Hospital. He would go on to become Director of the Faculty of Medicine’s International Health Exchange Programs.
Guenter has been semi-retired since 1993, allowing him to be involved in health care projects and development in Canada and abroad. In 2010, he was awarded the Order of Canada for his lifelong commitment to improving heal hcare and training in Canada and internationally.