Carleton Mourns Loss of Medical Pioneer Wilbert Keon
Carleton University mourns the passing of distinguished graduate Wilbert Keon, former senator, heart surgeon and University of Ottawa Heart Institute founder. Keon died on Sunday, April 7, 2019 at the age of 83.
He received his Bachelor of Science in 1957 from St. Patrick’s College, Carleton University, and his MD from the University of Ottawa. He earned his Master’s of Science degree in Experimental Surgery from McGill University. He trained at Montreal General Hospital, Toronto General, Toronto Hospital for Sick Children and Harvard Medical Center in Boston before returning to Ottawa in 1960. Keon received an honorary doctorate from Carleton in 1994.
Keon founded the University of Ottawa Heart Institute at the University of Ottawa in 1976 and served as its CEO until 2004. In 1986, he became the first Canadian surgeon to implant an artificial heart, a Jarvik-7, in a human.
Keon performed more than 10,000 open heart surgeries during a career spanning more than three decades.
Keon was awarded the Order of Canada in 1984 and, in 1990, he was appointed to the Senate on the advice of then-prime minister Brian Mulroney. He served in the upper chamber as a Conservative until 2010, when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 75.
He also served on the board of directors of the Champlain Local Health Integration Network.
Keon married Anne Jennings in 1960. The couple have three children, Claudia, Ryan and Neil, and eight grandchildren.
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