Gregoire Fere Amyot

Gregoire Fere Amyot

Public Health Contributions to Canada and the United States

After he retired in 1961 as Provincial Health Officer and Deputy Minister of Health in British Columbia, Dr. Gregoire Fere Amyot became a Lecturer in Public Health and Preventive Medicine at the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health, in Minneapolis. There is little doubt that his long and distinguished career in public health was inspired by his father, Dr. John Amyot. After graduating in medicine at the University of Toronto, Dr. G.F. Amyot joined the Department of Public Health in Saskatchewan and worked in the northern regions of the province, often travelling by canoe. He completed his postgraduate study in public health at the University of Toronto’s School of Hygiene and became Director of the Health Unit in North Vancouver and later Assistant Provincial Health Officer and Adviser on Hospital Services for the Province of British Columbia. He later worked for the Director of Field Services of the American Public Health Association and engaged in comprehensive studies of state and municipal health services. He was a Professor of Public Health Administration at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine and then returned to British Columbia in 1940 to serve as Provincial Health Officer. Dr. Amyot was the first Deputy Minister of Health for British Columbia’s Department of Health and Welfare (created in 1946). He served as CPHA President, vice-president of the American Public Health Association, and as a board member of the Canadian Medical Association. Dr. Gregoire Fere Amyot was awarded CPHA’s Honorary Life Membership in 1963.

(Canadian Journal of Public Health, Vol. 54, June 1963)