David M. Baltzan ^People

The Baltzans are a legendary Saskatoon medical family. David Baltzan, a Bessarabian Jew, was eight years old when his family emigrated to the Lipton district in southeastern Saskatchewan in 1905. His father abandoned farming three years al- ter to start a fur and hide trading business in Saskatoon. David, a graduate of Nutana Collegiate and schoolmate of future Conservative Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, completed his medical training at McGill University in 1920 and then pursued post- graduate study in Great Britain, Austria, and the United States. When Baltzan opened his clinic in Saskatoon in 1928, he became the first specialist in internal medicine and cardiology in the province. He was also one of the first doctors to have his own porta- ble electrocardiograph and x-ray machine. And he served as chief of medical staff and head of the department of medicine at S.t Paul's Hospital. That a Jewish doctor would occupy senior positions in a Roman Catholic hospital speaks volumes about his repu- tation. Perhaps that is why in 1960 he was asked to serve on the federal Royal Commis- sion on Health Services (the Hall report). Baltzan had three boys: Marc, Donald, and Richard. Marc and Richard specialized in internal medicine (metabolism and endocri- nology, and nephrology, respectively), while Donald wasa surgeon. By the mid-1960s, the four doctors, father and sons, shared a practice at the Baltzan Clinic in downtown Saskatoon and were on the medical staff of St. Paul's and University hospitals.