JIM GOODWIN, 93, DOCTOR, ROTARIAN, HUMANITARIAN AND HUGE CIVIC SUPPORTER
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
GRAVENHURST — A doctor, a Rotarian, a humanitarian and huge civic supporter, Jim Goodwin was many things.
Aged 93, he died at home this morning, leaving a long legacy that touched many and most of Gravenhurst.
He would have been 94 in June.
The retired physician — and former Canadian Navy doctor — kept active and busy to the end attending Rotary meetings this winter and participating in the activities and commenting on the future of the community.
Including the fate of Muskoka’s two hospitals, which he always took a keen interest in.
He boasted of being the last doctor to have worked in the old brick Bracebridge Hospital, before it expanded to its present site next door in 1964 as South Muskoka Memorial Hospital.
His son Randy said this afternoon that the family is working on details of a service and celebration of life for him, possibly to be held later this month.
A navy veteran from a large family, he is survived by his wife Marlyn and sons Bill, Greg, Tom, Greg, Randy and their families.
“He was a good man,” said longtime friend Jim Reynolds, a retired dentist in town.
Goodwin came to Gravenhurst in the mid-1950, about a decade before Reynolds, to work at Dr. Murray Fisher’s clinic where he cared for thousands of patients and families in Gravenhurst for more than half a century.
A year or so after Reynolds joined Rotary, Goodwin followed. Both were recognized for more than half a century of Service Above Self.
Reynolds said Goodwin was champion of Rotary’s PolioPlus initiative to end the childhood disease. And a member of the club’s group study exchange.
“He was amazing,” said Reynolds, noting his friend had a “great memory.”
In a recent interview with Goodwin about the controversial siting of services by Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare, he was both candid and forthright.
“It doesn’t matter what 100 people say, the government is going to do what they want anyways.
“You’re going to get a whole bunch of people standing up and giving their opinion, which in the long run isn’t going matter a damn 10 years from now.”
He agreed the reconsideration of a single site hospital was worth revisiting.
“Lots of people think that. Including me.
“Centralize it.
“What it looks like the government is planning is Huntsville’s going to be the basic hospital for everything, including obstetrics, which most people in Gravenhurst will probably end up in Orillia for obstetrics. Not got to Huntsville.
“I think that’s what’s going to happen.”
Goodwin, who said he wasn’t doing “doing well these days,” knows of what he speaks after a half century as a local GP.
Last fall he spent a couple days in ER before being admitted for a day in a ward.
After decades tending mornings to his patients at SMMH, doing ER night and weekend shifts — in addition to his day practice — Goodwin relented that things in the medical field for the formal long-time naval man.
That change, he said, is a switch over the past 10 years to a “new category of doctors called “hospitalists,” who only work in hospitals.
“Not in the ER, but in the hospital itself. And the local doctors don’t need to go in (every day). They just send their patients up and the hospitalist takes over.”
But is that a good idea?
“Well, I think it is a good idea. I think so.”
Did he think holding off on making a final decision soon will risk Muskoka not staying on the preferred list of hospitals Infrastructure Ontario has?
“It’s possible, no question about that. In the business of budgeting, if you don’t spend it somebody else will.”
Goodwin said he wasn’t asked to sign the original letter of opposition by the 41 other doctors.
“I don’t need to sign it. What the hell. They’ve got enough people on that list. One more name isn’t going to make any difference.”
Goodwin, a Rotarian for more than a half century, travelled with the club many times around the world in his capacity as doctor.
He was also a benevolent donor giving to many local and international causes. It wasn’t uncommon to see his name up on the side of the Scout Hall thanking him for his donation.
And could be seen attending public meetings and gatherings, offering his sage advice.
MORE LATER ….
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