Cyril Greenland remembers Charles Roland, whose obituary appeared on June 25.
The late Charles G. Roland was a generous, congenial and a gloriously entertaining friend and colleague for more than 40 years. We first met in June, 1963, at an exhibition on the Life and Work of Richard Maurice Bucke (1837-1902) which Jack Griffin, John Robert Colombo and I prepared for an annual meeting of the Canadian Psychiatric Association.
On learning about our nascent Archives on the History of Canadian Psychiatry (The Griffin-Greenland Collection), Chuck, a busy GP, volunteered to write a brief biography of Clarence Hincks, founder of the Canadian National Committee for Mental Hygiene, later the Canadian Mental Health Association. This book, eventually published in 1990, was fondly dedicated to Chuck's daughter Kathleen Siobhan Roland Ruben "who, quite unconsciously, has done much over the years to improve the author's mental equilibrium."
Following his appointment at McMaster University in 1977, as the Hannah Professor of the History of Medicine, Professor Roland, an accomplished raconteur, was in great demand as a public speaker. On one memorable occasion his lecture, to a full house at the former Toronto Academy of Medicine, was titled The Human Sphincter. His concluding remarks, which had the august audience in stitches and rolling in the aisles, is worth remembering. "The anal sphincter can tell whether its owner is alone or with someone, whether standing or sitting down and whether its owner has his pants on or off. No other muscle of the human body is such a protector of the dignity of mankind or so ready to come to his or her relief."
My debt to Chuck Roland and to his wife Connie is equally immense.
