Wallace B. Chung, MDCM FRCSC DSc’94

Professor Emeritus (1989)

Founder of the W.B. and M.H Chung Lecturship  in the Department of Surgery

Dr. Wallace Chung was appointed a member to the Order of Canada in June 2005

Born in Victoria, Dr. Chung attended Victoria College, the University of British Columbia and McGill University where he graduated in Medicine in 1953. Returning to live in Vancouver, he married Dr. Madeline Chung (née Huang), with whom he had two children, Maria and Stephen. By 1958, he was Chief Resident in General Surgery at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH). He rose to the rank of Professor of Surgery and was head of the UBC Division of General Surgery and subsequently the Division of Vascular Surgery. Professionally, he is perhaps best known for the introduction of innovative techniques in stroke surgery, and for the advancement of vascular surgery as an officially recognized specialty in Canada, overseeing its evolvement into a separate surgical division at both VGH and UBC. He led the Department of Surgery at University Hospital for nearly 10 years and did much to enhance its international reputation as an important academic facility. He retired from surgery and the University of British Columbia in 1991.

He is very much involved with the UBC Library, serving on the President’s Library Advisory Council (chair 1993-97) and, more recently, donating 25,000 books and printed materials and 1,750 artifacts from an extraordinary private collection.

The collection reflects his personal fascination with the CPR and its fleet of steamships. From bedpans to life preservers to pamphlets aimed at new European settlers to a first edition of Captain Cook’s Voyage to the Pacific to an incredible, 13-foot model of the The Empress of Asia Steamship, the collection is an invaluable assortment of tangible history from BC and western Canada. http://www.library.ubc.ca/chung/main.html

Dr. Chung’s donation is a generous but unsurprising act from one who strives to promote and preserve Chinese culture in Canada. He was a founding member and past Chair of the Vancouver Chinese Cultural Centre, a member of Canadian Multiculturalism Council (he played a role in drafting the Multiculturalism Act), the International Dragon Boat Festival Society, and the BC Heritage Trust’s board of directors. Dr. Chung was also Commissioner of the Vancouver Maritime Museum. He is holder of a Canada 125 Medal and received the UBC Honorary Alumnus Award in 2002. He is an Honorary Life Member of the Canadian Association of General Surgeons.