I grew up in what was then rural Toronto. I was really into science fiction – my father would bring me science fiction pocketbooks. I had over 500 of them. I was just so driven and wanted to be an astronaut. When I started to look at colleges, I learned about the Montreal Neurological Institute and Wilder Penfield. I applied for an Honours degree in Physiology at McGill.
My father said, ‘Well, son, I don't have any money, so you'll have to make your way. I can give you $50 and a train ticket.’ I can remember to this day, my parents dropped me off at the Toronto train station. I went to McGill and checked in and got into my room at Douglas Hall, but I didn't have any money. How am I going to pay my tuition and all that? I went to the bursar. I got a couple of bursaries to get me going. I worked in various fashions to pay for my tuition and board.
I’ll never forget this till the day I die. I was over at the Montreal Neurological Institute, and I had to take the elevator upstairs to get some reference [material] and there was Dr. Penfield. I said: Could I ask you a question? He said ‘Sure, what?’ How long do you think it will be before we fully understand the human brain? He said, ‘Oh, maybe several thousand years.’
For Expo ’67, I had this fabulous job of writing the storyline for the Man and Life Pavilion. That was a very interesting experience. While doing that, I would visit with Professors Hank MacIntosh and Geoffrey Melvill-Jones about my PhD, which I planned to do in aerospace medicine. (I still wanted to become an astronaut.)
Hank MacIntosh said I think you should consider getting a medical degree rather than a PhD. He made the comment, which had such a profound effect on my life. He said with a PhD you get specialized in an area, and you go down an avenue and if you change your mind and you want to do something else, you have to back out and start over again. But if you have an M.D., you can still go and do the same research, etc. And you can go left and right and centre – you can have a much more flexible instrument in a medical degree.
I applied to McGill medical school and went for an interview.
One day I was downtown working on the Expo ’67 job and needed some information from the library in the Anatomy Building on University Avenue. You figure these odds: I went in this Gothic building. At the very end of the corridor was the entrance to the library. I get right opposite the middle door, and it opens up. Two people step out: Hank MacIntosh, the chairman of the Physiology Department and Melvill-Jones from Aerospace Medicine. They said we just gave you the last place in next year’s medical class, congratulations. That started the process that took me all over the world.
Read about Dr. Holbrooke’s career as a health care entrepreneur and his gift to the McGill Innovation Fund.