Obituary of Alice Mary Goodfellow Hodges

DR. ALICE MARY GOODFELLOW (Hodges) B.A., M.D., FRCPC Alice passed away at the Pasqua Hospital on Saturday, August 17, 2013, after a brief illness. Born to Sampson John and Ann Owen “Nancy” Goodfellow in the family home in Regina on December 30, 1922, Alice grew up as an only child, losing two brothers in infancy. She was a bit of a tomboy, known for walking on fences, riding her bike to the edge of town, running around all over and often falling and skinning her knees. Alice attended Scott Collegiate, Regina’s academic school of choice, remaining at that school and graduating with her classmates even though the family moved out of the neighborhood before she finished Grade 12. To ensure that she would always have the means to support herself, her parents also insisted on her taking piano lessons, and she eventually obtained her ATCM diploma so she could teach piano if need be. Alice loved school and seriously considered studying mathematics and physics in university, but was discouraged from those choices by the guidance counsellor, who felt those fields were only appropriate for men, not a young lady. Instead Alice chose to pursue medicine, making the decision to do so during a Sunday service at Knox-Metropolitan United Church which she had been invited to attend with her mother. Alice began her post-secondary education at the University of Saskatchewan Regina Campus, then completed a pre-med degree at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, graduating as one of only four women in a class of 24. She chose to complete her medical degree at the University of Toronto, graduating in January 1946 from an accelerated program, shorter than usual due to the need for doctors during the war. Men outnumbered women ten to one in her class. After graduation she decided to specialize in pediatrics. She interned for 16 months at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, then, because a residency was not readily available due to the number of returning soldiers, spent a year at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children conducting research on polio with Dr. Nelles Silverthorne. She followed that with a year of pathology. In the early 1950s Alice accepted a fellowship opportunity to conduct research into the needs of premature babies at Babies’ Hospital in New York (now New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital). After a year and a half she returned to Toronto to practice, and in 1953 was selected as the first Fellow in Neonatology at the Hospital for Sick Children. Before long, however, missing her parents, she returned to Regina, where she practiced pediatrics as part of the Medical Arts group of doctors. Alice married William “Bill” Hodges, P.Eng., in 1963, and returned to Toronto with him, working as a medical consultant for the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) until her retirement in 1983. After her retirement, the family, which now included two daughters, Margaret Anne and Elizabeth, returned to Regina. In retirement, Alice was very involved with the arts. At different times she served on the boards of both the Regina Symphony Orchestra and Globe Theatre, and actively supported many other cultural events through her attendance, which continued through June of this year. Alice was predeceased by her mother and father, Ann Owen “Nancy” Goodfellow (née Ridgway) and Samson John Goodfellow, and by her husband, William Edward “Bill” Hodges. She is survived by two daughters and their husbands, Margaret Anne Hodges and Edward Willett, and Elizabeth and Glen Kunitz, and one granddaughter, Alice Laura Mae Willett. A celebration of Alice Goodfellow’s life will be held at the Wascana Country Club on Sunday, September 15, 2013: come-and-go from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., with program at 3:00 p.m. Donations in Alice’s name may be made to the Globe Theatre, 1801 Scarth Street, Regina, SK, S4P 2G9, the MacKenzie Art Gallery, 3475 Albert Street, Regina, SK, S4S 6X6 or the Regina Symphony Orchestra, 2424 College Avenue, Regina, SK, S4P 1C8. To leave an online message of condolence, please visit www.speersfuneralchapel.com