Island physician inducted into St. FX Hall of Honour
The late Dr. Leo Killorn was posthumously inducted into St. Francis Xavier University’s Hall of Honour.
Family from across the Maritimes attended the recent ceremony in Antigonish, N.S.
St. FX Hall of Honour was initiated by the class of 1991 Legacy Committee, to recognize those members of the St. FX community who have carried on the St. FX tradition and spirit of helping others and their community.
Killorn was born in Saint John, N.B., and graduated from St. FX in 1945. He was also awarded the Governor Generals Medal. Killorn graduated from McGill medical school in Montreal in 1949 and then studied surgery and pathology at the medical college of Virginia in Richmond, West Virginia.
He would eventually marry Helen Grant of Montague, P.E.I.
In 1955, as a surgeon and general practitioner, he came to Charlottetown where he carried out his medical practice for 13 years. During this time, he battled alcoholism and eventually obtained help for his alcoholism in 1968.
It was then that he dedicated his life to the “apostolate of the alcoholic”. He would be the medical director and executive director of the Alcoholism Foundation of P.E.I. in 1971. He was also one of the first physicians in North America to treat chemical dependency as a disease.
In 1974, he would establish the Alcohol and Drug Problems Institute in Charlottetown, the first outpatient detoxification treatment program of its kind in North America.
In 1979 he was awarded the Guardian Patriot Islander of the Year Award. He would also receive an honorary degree from UPEI in 1985. In addition, he was recognized as one of North Americas leaders in alcohol education and rehabilitation.
Killorn died in June of 1992 but was awarded posthumously the Canada 125 Medal that same year.
The late Premier Joseph Ghiz in giving his eulogy said, “he viewed alcohol and drug addiction not as a weakness of character to be judged or frowned upon socially, but as a disease like any other, one which could be treated and controlled. Over the course of his professional career he quite literally saved the lives of many who came to him sick and broken in spirit”.