Dr. Glen Carlson and his wife established the Glen and Margaret Carlson Bursary in Medicine while Donna has made a gift in her will to support the Walter Gage Bursary Fund.
Glen was a third year medical student when he met Professor Gage in the late fifties. He had run into some financial trouble and needed help. “I couldn’t pay my landlady and still had a semester to do,” he explains. “Although I wasn’t in any of his classes, I used to hear all sorts of stories. Everyone knew if you were a starving student, you went to see Professor Gage.”
Unsure of what to do but determined to do it, Glen dressed up in his best suit and tie and went to the Professor’s office. “He listened to my story and then handed me a form and said, ‘sign here.’ I got some money, and that was the sum total of my experience.”
Although the encounter was short and sweet, Glen cites the support he received as the inspiration behind the Carlson Bursary. Established in 2005, this bursary is available to medical students who need help reconciling their assessed financial need with available government assistance. Over 80 students have already benefited from Glen and Margaret’s generosity.
“If I could speak to Walter Gage one more time, I’d say ‘thank you’,” says Glen. “That little loan made all the difference. It allowed me to finish my degree and go on to lead a pretty good life.”
Glen Carlson
MD 1960
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