Support the Louise McGregor Memorial Scholarship in Neurorehabilitation

Dr. Susan Harris, Professor Emerita with the Department of Physical Therapy, is encouraging donations to the McGregor Scholarship Fund that she endowed in 2005.

The Louise McGregor Memorial Scholarship in Neurorehabilitation is endowed in memory of Louise McGregor, a former faculty member in the School of Rehabilitation Sciences.

This award is offered to a MSc or PhD student making significant research contributions in the area of neurorehabilitation within the Graduate Program in Rehabilitation Science. 

To donate, go to give UBC. In the ‘choose cause’ drop down list, click on ‘Other’ and insert: Louise McGregor Scholarship in Neurorehabilitation.

Louise ‘Lou’ McGregor (1921-2005) was born in Winnipeg. She grew up on a farm near Ogema, Saskatchewan, and, after teaching in several small towns, she joined the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service. She was trained in signals and was posted in London during WWII.

She returned to Canada and received her Diploma in Physiotherapy from McGill University, working in Winnipeg and then in England before returning to become Head Physiotherapist at Winnipeg General Hospital.

Throughout her life, Lou was an avid traveller and passionate volunteer. In 1957, she travelled to Indonesia to work with children with poliomyelitis, more commonly known as polio, and to train Indonesian women in physiotherapy.

Lou moved to BC in 1960, working first at GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre and then
starting the Physiotherapy Department at Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children. She then spent two years at the University of Toronto training to be a physiotherapy instructor, returning to Vancouver in 1963 to become one of the early faculty members of UBC’s new School of Rehabilitation Medicine. She completed a BA and a Master’s in Adult Education at UBC, and also served a term as BC’s Director to the Canadian Physiotherapy Association (CPA).

While at UBC, Lou taught neuroanatomy, growth and development, and paediatric and adult neurology. She spent part of her 1980-81 sabbatical with Project HOPE in Cairo, Egypt, and the remaining part being trained in paediatric assessment by Dr. Susan Harris, who was then the Head of Physiotherapy at the University of Washington’s Child Development & Mental Retardation Center.

Lou also established and led the degree completion program at UBC in the 1970s, which graduated a number of the current PT and OT leaders in BC. She was a life member of CPA and retired from UBC in 1986 as a Professor Emerita.

In addition to being a highly accomplished and experienced professor, Lou was known as a kid and self-effacing colleague.

In 2002, the School dedicated a research lab in honour of Lou and Jane Hudson, the first head of the School’s physiotherapy program.

We hope that the McGregor Scholarship Fund continues to celebrate Lou’s achievements and commemorate her legacy.

Adapted from the history posted on the Physiotherapy Association of British Columbia