CALEB NICKERSON
PONTIAC April 7, 2019
The Pontiac region, and Canada as a whole, lost an icon over the weekend.
Dr. Wilbert Joseph Keon, a Sheenboro native and renowned cardiac surgeon passed away surrounded by family on April 7 at the age of 83. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Ann, as well as his three children, Claudia, Neil and Ryan, and eight grandchildren.
He was born in the upper Pontiac town of Sheenboro in 1935, the youngest of 13 children. He completed his medical schooling at Carleton University, the University of Ottawa and McGill University, before training in a variety of locations, including the Harvard Medical Centre in Boston.
In 1976, Keon founded the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, where he remained CEO until retiring in 2004. He performed the Institute’s first heart transplant in 1984, and in 1986, he became the first Canadian to implant an artificial heart into a human.
In 1990, he was appointed to the Senate on the advice of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and sat as a Conservative until his mandatory retirement in 2010 at the age of 75.
He was the recipient of numerous accolades including the Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and Gold Jubilee Medal and was also inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. The school in Chapeau also bears his name.
“Together with the Heart Institute staff including those who worked alongside him for decades, I pledge that we will live up to his legacy, and his dream to continue building and growing his beloved Institute,” Dr. Thierry Mesana, President and CEO of the Heart Institute is quoted as saying in a press release. “This is a colossal task as he has touched so many of our lives as a surgeon, as a mentor, as a community leader, and as a friend.”
Officials and colleagues of all stations and political stripes, including Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, CHEO President Alex Munter, Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer and former Cabinet Minister John Baird expressed their condolences on social media.
