On being a pathologist-a logic for life.

Pathology has encouraged, stimulated, permitted, enabled, and provided me with a conceptual basis for understanding numerous ideas and opportunities that I have encountered in life. At the age of 16 years, as a student at the University of British Columbia (UBC), I first encountered the study of interrelationships of institutions offered by a brilliant sociologist in his last years of teaching, Prof C. W. Topping. His elaboration of the interaction of institutions closely paralleled my next academic insights, the Medical School Pathology course with Prof William Boyd and Harold Taylor. Understanding process, including the importance of prior conditions such as drinking water contaminated by bacteria or inhaling carcinogens on the ensuing pathogenetic process, was a wonderful experience. Then followed the revelation that virtually all medical practitioners implemented tactical interventions dependent on the pathogenetic stages of disease. The parallel with social/political situations requiring clarification of process and use of tactical interventions was immediately obvious to me. As I proceeded to residency training, the Dean at UBC, Dr Jack McCreary, a senior pediatrician, invited me to study pediatrics, which I did for a year but then returned to pathology the following years, first to study pediatric pathology at the Children's Hospital in Los Angeles and, later, general pathology in Vancouver. When I finished my residency training, I wrote and passed the Canadian and American specialty examinations and began the practice of pediatric pathology and teaching undergraduate medical school students. I had to administer the hospital division of pediatric pathology, perform neonatal and pediatric autopsies, review surgicals, oversee the pediatric clinical