Jessie Catherine Gray

Gray, Jessie Catherine

Jessie Catherine Gray, surgeon, lecturer, researcher (b at Augusta, Georgia 26 Aug 1910; d at Toronto 16 Oct 1978). Canada's "first lady of surgery," and one of the 4 leading cancer surgeons in N America, Gray earned a formidable succession of firsts: first woman gold medalist in medicine at U of T (1934); first woman to obtain the master of surgery degree (1939); first woman resident surgeon at the Toronto General Hospital; first woman fellow of the Royal Coll of Surgeons (Canada, 1941); first woman member of the Central Surgical Society of N America; first woman elected to the Science Council of Canada (1966). She was appointed associate surgeon in chief at Women's College Hospital, Toronto, in 1941, and held the post of surgeon in chief from 1945 to her retirement in 1965.