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Rose City Roots · Windsor Minds

Windsor Minds

SCIENCE · MEDICINE · FIRSTS

From salt-works childhoods and Hotel-Dieu wards to a Nobel Prize, a child-safe bottle cap, and a Canadian first in engineering. This tab is about the people who thought, healed and invented here, told with heart about the places that raised them. Distinct from the People photo gallery and from Works and Wages.

David H. Hubel at a 1992 medical forum in Boston
David H. Hubel, 1992. Born Windsor. Shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Joey cantod. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Canadian Salt Company salt works in Windsor, 1913
Windsor Salt works, 1913. Hubel's father worked for the salt company. Gardner souvenir book. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Scientists

Labs, classrooms and a Nobel line that starts on the Detroit River. Free portraits are on hand for Hubel and Lazaridis. Drake's Hall of Fame portrait is used with permission. The rest wait on rights.

Free to use
David H. Hubel at a 1992 medical forum in Boston

David H. Hubel

Born Windsor, 27 Feb 1926

A neurophysiologist who shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Torsten Wiesel for work on how the visual cortex sees. His parents moved from Detroit so his father, a chemical engineer, could work at Windsor Salt. A hometown Nobel story that starts on our river, not in a distant lab.

Sources: Canadian Encyclopedia; NobelPrize.org; Canadian Medical Hall of Fame (2006)

Dave Hubel at 1992 medical forum, Boston, MA. Joey cantod. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Free to use
Essex Hall, University of Windsor, April 2026

Howard D. McCurdy

Long University of Windsor microbiologist

Myxobacteria researcher and, by university accounts, the first African-Canadian tenured professor in Canada. Later a Member of Parliament. His lab and civic life sit beside Freedom Shore without rewriting that chapter. No free portrait cleared yet; Essex Hall stands in for the science campus where he taught.

Sources: University of Windsor DailyNews; CAUT obituary; Windsor Public Library

Essex Hall, University of Windsor, 26 Apr 2026. Photo: Chris Woodrich (Crisco 1492). CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Not a portrait of McCurdy.

Free to use
Dillon Hall, University of Windsor, April 2026

Hoda ElMaraghy

University of Windsor; first woman engineering dean in Canada, 1994

Founding director of the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Centre. Order of Canada. Her manufacturing-systems work put Windsor engineering on a national map. No free portrait yet; Dillon Hall stands for the campus engineering setting.

Sources: University of Windsor IMS; Governor General; McMaster Engineering

Dillon Hall, University of Windsor, 26 Apr 2026. Photo: Chris Woodrich. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Not a portrait of ElMaraghy.

Used with permission
Illustrated portrait of Dr. Charles G. Drake by Irma Coucill

Charles G. Drake

Born Windsor, 21 Jul 1920; career based in London, Ont.

Neurosurgeon known for aneurysm techniques. Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, 1994. We say born Windsor and career London in the same breath.

Sources: Canadian Medical Hall of Fame; cross-checked biographical summaries

Portrait by Irma Coucill, courtesy of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

Free to use
Leddy Library, University of Windsor, July 2010

Queenie Halford Shirley

Settled Windsor 1936; Pitt Street research shop

Bureau of Industrial Chemical Research at 424 Pitt Street West. Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1952, believed to be the first Canadian woman with an EE doctorate. Ceramic and glass dielectric heating, with patents shared with her husband Frederick. Leddy Library holds a digital exhibit; building photo until exhibit scans clear.

Sources: University of Windsor Leddy / Centre for Digital Scholarship Omeka exhibit; Windsor Daily Star, 15 Jul 1952

Leddy Library, University of Windsor, July 2010. Photo: Alam1s. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Not a portrait of Shirley.

Free to use
Mike Lazaridis, Royal Society portrait

Mike Lazaridis

Raised in Windsor from about age 5; not born here

Born in Istanbul in 1961. Grew up through Ada C. Richards and Herman; a Windsor Public Library science-book award at 12. Co-founded Research In Motion / BlackBerry. We say raised here, never born here. Portrait released under CC BY-SA by the Royal Society.

Sources: Canadian Encyclopedia; Windsor Public Library; University of Waterloo alumni notes

Mr Mike Lazaridis OC FRS. Royal Society uploader. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Medicine

Hospitals on the river, poison control, and leaders who carried Windsor training into the country's biggest children's wards. Free SWODA hospital photos below; pioneer portraits still text-only.

Hotel Dieu postcard, Windsor
Hotel Dieu postcard. Southwestern Ontario Digital Archive, Leddy Library. Public domain. Breault's poison-control work grew out of wards like these.
Salvation Army Grace Hospital, Windsor, about 1950
Grace Hospital, about 1950. Salvation Army. Southwestern Ontario Digital Archive, Leddy Library. Public domain.
Hotel Dieu Hospital exterior, 1895
Hotel Dieu, 1895. From Souvenir: Windsor and Walkerville. SWODA / Leddy. Public domain.
Palm-N-Turn patent drawing sheet 2, US3344942A
Palm-N-Turn patent, sheet 2. U.S. Patent US3344942A (Hedgewick, 1967). Public domain.
Cover sheet of U.S. Patent US3344942A naming P. Hedgewick
Patent cover, 1967. Inventor line: P. Hedgewick. U.S. Patent US3344942A. Public domain.
Ford Motor Company of Canada plant, 1908
Ford Motor Company of Canada, 1908. Julie Ceccaldi. Wikimedia Commons. CC0.
Ford Motor Co plant, Windsor, 1913
Ford plant, Windsor, 1913. Gardner souvenir book. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel
Hubel and Wiesel. Photo: Jimmierock. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.
Child-resistant medicine packaging example
Child-resistant packaging example. Not the Palm-N-Turn brand pack; shows the safety idea. Mosesofmason. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Free to use
Hotel Dieu Hospital, Windsor, 1913

Henri J. Breault

Born Tecumseh; Hotel-Dieu pediatrics and Poison Control from 1957

About 41 years of Windsor practice. He drove the Canadian campaign for child-resistant medicine containers after seeing poisonings in Hotel-Dieu wards. Ontario mandated the packaging in 1974. Canadian Medical Hall of Fame gives his death as 9 Oct 1983; an earlier Windsor Public Library note said 5 Sep 1983. We prefer the Hall of Fame date until a Star obituary PDF settles it. No free portrait; the hospital and the cap tell the place.

Sources: Canadian Medical Hall of Fame 1997; Canadian Encyclopedia; Ingenium; Windsor Public Library

Hotel Dieu, Windsor, 1913. From the Gardner souvenir book. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Not a portrait of Breault.

Free to use
Palm-N-Turn safety cap patent drawing, US3344942A

Peter Hedgewick

Windsor toolmaker; Reflex / International Tool

Inventor of record on U.S. Patent US3344942A, "Safety cap and container" (filed 1966, issued 1967): the Palm-N-Turn. Breault was the physician-advocate and partner. Hedgewick holds the patent line. U.S. patent drawings are public domain. No free portrait found.

Sources: Google Patents US3344942A; Canadian Medical Hall of Fame Breault timeline

U.S. Patent US3344942A, sheet 1 of drawings (issued 3 Oct 1967). Public domain (U.S. government patent grant).

Free to use
Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital, Windsor

Mary Jo Haddad

Windsor native

Later CEO of SickKids and the first woman Chancellor of the University of Windsor. Nursing and children's hospital leadership that started with a Windsor upbringing. No free portrait; modern Hotel-Dieu Grace stands for the city's hospital line she grew up beside.

Sources: University of Windsor President's Office; Governor General, Order of Canada; Windsor Star profiles

Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital, Windsor. Photo: Mikerussell. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Not a portrait of Haddad.

Firsts

Inventions and Canadian firsts with primary sources. Auto-plant history stays on Works and Wages; this chapter links rather than retells.

Free to use
Palm-N-Turn child-proof medicine cap

Palm-N-Turn and Ontario's mandate

Patent 1967; Ontario mandate 1974

Hotel-Dieu poison cases led to an Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies design contest, Hedgewick's cap, and a 1974 provincial rule. The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame cites about a 91 percent local drop in child poisonings. Patent figures and a period Palm-N-Turn pack photo are free; inventor portraits are not.

Sources: Google Patents US3344942A; Canadian Medical Hall of Fame; Ingenium

Palm-N-Turn child-proof cap. Wikimedia Commons File:Palmnturn.JPG. Public domain (PD-US-no notice).

Free to use
Gordon McGregor House, Windsor, 1913

Gordon Morton McGregor

Born near Windsor; Ford Motor Company of Canada, 1904

Walkerville wagon works to Ford Canada. He founded the company that shaped Walkerville and Ford City. This card links Works and Wages; it does not retell the plant timeline. His 1913 house and the Ford plant photos are free public-domain / CC0 images.

Sources: Dictionary of Canadian Biography; Windsor Public Library

Gordon McGregor House, Windsor, 1913. Gardner souvenir book. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Free to use
University of Windsor campus, August 2006

First woman engineering dean in Canada

Hoda ElMaraghy, University of Windsor, 1994

A national first on our campus. Cross-listed under Scientists; kept here so the firsts chapter can stand alone when Kyle wants a short shareable spine.

Sources: University of Windsor IMS; Governor General

University of Windsor campus, August 2006. Photo: Mikerussell. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Not a portrait.

Three chapters in view

Kyle asked for scientists, medicine and firsts as chapters under one Windsor Minds tab. Faith and Newcomer Communities stays on hold.

1. Scientists

Hubel's visual cortex Nobel, McCurdy's microbiology and civic life, ElMaraghy's manufacturing systems, Drake's Windsor birth and London career, Shirley's Pitt Street shop and EE doctorate, Lazaridis raised here. Hubel, Lazaridis and Drake now have portraits; others join when rights clear.

2. Medicine

Hotel-Dieu from 1888, Grace, Metropolitan, poison control under Breault, Hedgewick's Palm-N-Turn, Mary Jo Haddad's nursing leadership. Patient stories stay private; we tell institutions and public pioneers.

3. Firsts

Palm-N-Turn (1967) and Ontario's 1974 mandate, Ford Canada under McGregor (1904), first woman engineering dean in Canada (1994). Only claims with primary docs.

More Windsor minds

New or corrected people from the second deep dive. Marion Lewis belongs here and on Born Here: born in Windsor, career in Winnipeg.

Free to use
The Administration Building at the University of Manitoba Fort Garry campus, 8 August 2023

Marion Lewis

Born Windsor, 21 Sep 1925; died 2025

Co-founded the Winnipeg Rh Laboratory with Bruce Chown. That work helped prevent Rh disease of the newborn. She was born in Windsor on 21 September 1925; the laboratory career was in Winnipeg. An earlier who's-missing pass had treated her as Winnipeg-only. That was wrong. Also on Women of Windsor and Born Here, Went Far. No free portrait was cleared tonight (University of Manitoba Archives would need permission).

Sources: Memorable Manitobans · University of Manitoba Archives

The Administration Building at the University of Manitoba Fort Garry campus, 8 August 2023. Marion Lewis co-founded the Winnipeg Rh Laboratory; her scientific career was in Winnipeg. This is the campus, not a portrait. Photo: HW1122, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Free to use
University Hall at McMaster University in Hamilton, 16 January 2013

Frank Hayden

Born Windsor, 1930; Special Olympics pioneer

Full card on On Ice and Field. Placed here because the work began in physical-education research.

Sources: Canada's Sports Hall of Fame · Canadian Encyclopedia

University Hall at McMaster University in Hamilton, 16 January 2013. Frank Hayden was director of the School of Physical Education and Athletics at McMaster. This is the campus, not a portrait. Photo: JustSomePics, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Order of Canada
University of Windsor campus, August 2006

Ronald W. Ianni

University of Windsor president; Order of Canada

A long-time University of Windsor president and an Officer of the Order of Canada. The school founding story (Assumption College 1857 to the modern university) is being told in the more-roots chapters preview; this card is the person.

Sources: Order of Canada citation · University of Windsor

University of Windsor campus, August 2006, during the decades Ronald W. Ianni served as the university's president. He is not pictured. Photo: Mikerussell. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Added from who's missing

Free to use
Portrait of Elijah McCoy

Elijah McCoy

Born Colchester Township, Canada West (about 1843 to 1844)

Inventor of automatic steam-engine lubricators. Canadian Encyclopedia and Windsor Public Library place his birth in Colchester Township, Essex County. His working career was later in Michigan. Frame as Essex-born; do not claim a Windsor city childhood without a primary source.

Sources: Canadian Encyclopedia; Windsor Public Library

Ypsilanti Historical Society via University of Michigan Library Digital Collections / Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA.

Sky Over the Strait

Space roots tied to Windsor-Essex: hardware made here, people who worked the sky from here, the club that watches it, and the nights the sky visited us. No Windsor-Essex astronaut has been verified. NASA and CSA images are often free; local observatory and eclipse photos still need asks.

Space Shuttle Columbia launching
Space Shuttle Columbia launching. NASA. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Context for Acrolab's 1993 re-entry heat-pipe work; not a product photo.
Text only for now

No Windsor-Essex astronaut yet

Bottom line for this chapter

No person born, raised or educated in Windsor-Essex could be verified as an astronaut. Claims that NASA astronaut John Herrington is from Windsor are false (born Wetumka, Oklahoma; he only spoke at the University of Windsor). Chris Hadfield was born in Sarnia. The real space roots below are smaller and still good.

Sources: NASA Herrington bio; Windsor Star / CBC Hadfield profiles; deep-dive research 9 Nov 2026

Text only. Discipline card; no portrait.

Free to use
Space Shuttle Columbia launching

Acrolab heat pipes on Space Shuttle Columbia

Windsor firm; 1993 Columbia re-entry test (company and UWindsor account)

Acrolab Ltd. (founded 1948 as Accurate Laboratories) says its custom Isobar heat pipes kept two Lockheed spectrometers cool while they examined spacecraft glow on Columbia's re-entry in 1993. University of Windsor DailyNews (2020) repeats the company account. STS flight number not matched to NASA records tonight; do not invent STS-55 or STS-58. Cross-link Works and Wages when a Made in Windsor line is ready.

Sources: Acrolab About Us (1993 timeline); UWindsor DailyNews, 28 Oct 2020

Space Shuttle Columbia launching. NASA / public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Context only; not an Acrolab product photo.

Photo wanted
Windsor News placeholder for Stanley Galezowski. A Rose City Roots tile asking for a photograph of this subject.

Stanley Galezowski

Avro to NASA Space Task Group; later lived and worked in Windsor

Avro Arrow engineer who joined NASA's Space Task Group and built Mercury and Apollo re-entry simulations, then later ran the Canadian Tire at Dougall and Cabana in Windsor (Canadian Aviation Museum page). Some search summaries call him a Tecumseh native; the museum page does not. Frame as lived and worked here later. Confidence: Low to Medium until a primary Windsor record is pulled.

Sources: Canadian Aviation Museum page on Galezowski; Avro Arrow employee notes (secondary)

Photo wanted. Share yours through the family photo or story note below.

Free to use
NICER instrument on the International Space Station

Sharon Morsink

Grew up in Windsor; NASA NICER pulsar analysis

University of Alberta astrophysicist who worked on NASA NICER pulsar results (2019). University of Alberta Folio says she grew up in Windsor; birthplace not confirmed. Living person: mission image stands in until a portrait is cleared. Cross-link Women of Windsor when that card is added.

Sources: University of Alberta Folio, Apr 2016; University of Alberta Science news, Dec 2019

NICER on the International Space Station. NASA / public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Mission image, not a portrait of Morsink.

Photo wanted
Windsor News placeholder for Adam Sirek. A Rose City Roots tile asking for a photograph of this subject.

Adam Sirek

Tecumseh / Windsor family physician; CSA 2017 astronaut shortlist

RCAF reserve flight surgeon; one of 72 finalists in the Canadian Space Agency's 2017 astronaut search (CBC). Living person; low priority for a portrait ask. Not selected as an astronaut.

Sources: CBC Windsor, 2017 astronaut contenders coverage

Photo wanted. Share yours through the family photo or story note below.

Photo wanted
Windsor News placeholder for RASC Windsor Centre and the Hallam Observatory. A Rose City Roots tile asking for a photograph of this subject.

RASC Windsor Centre and the Hallam Observatory

Centre formed 13 Dec 1944; Hallam Observatory at Comber from 2001

Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Windsor Centre, main founder Cyril Hallam (1906 to 1988). In 2001 the centre moved St. Clair College's old observatory dome to Comber and named it for Hallam. August 1989 lunar eclipse drew about 500 people to the St. Clair College dome (RASC history). Ask RASC Windsor for observatory photos.

Sources: RASC: Windsor Centre formed; RASC Windsor history page

Photo wanted. Share yours through the family photo or story note below.

Free to use
Total solar eclipse, 2017 (context; not Essex 2024)

2024 total solar eclipse over Essex

Pelee Island: first land in Canada in totality, 8 Apr 2024

About 3 min 9 s of totality on Pelee Island; Point Pelee about 2:58; Leamington about 2:05; Windsor partial (about 99.5%). Windsor Star: Essex County's first total eclipse in about 250 years. No free Commons photo from Essex found; NASA eclipse images are free but not local. Ask RASC Windsor members for permission to use a local shot. The 2017 eclipse photo below is context only, not Essex 2024.

Sources: CBC Windsor eclipse coverage; timeanddate Pelee Island eclipse page; Windsor Star (secondary)

Total solar eclipse, 2017. Context only (not Essex 2024). Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photo wanted
Windsor News placeholder for January 2018 fireball over Windsor-Essex. A Rose City Roots tile asking for a photograph of this subject.

January 2018 fireball over Windsor-Essex

Seen and heard here, 16 Jan 2018; meteorites recovered in Michigan

About 8:10 PM a fireball was seen and heard across Windsor-Essex. It broke up over Michigan; Hamburg, Michigan meteorites (H4 chondrite) were recovered. No recorded meteorite fall in Essex County was found in this dig. Seen here; did not fall here.

Sources: CBC Windsor meteor coverage; LPSC 2019 Hamburg meteorite abstract

Photo wanted. Share yours through the family photo or story note below.

Free to use
Chris Hadfield in 2011

Chris Hadfield's first memory of flight

Born Sarnia; Windsor air show memory about age 4; returned 2014

Hadfield has said his first aviation memory was watching the Golden Hawks at a Windsor air show. He returned in 2014 for Windsor Symphony concerts of songs written in space. Do not call him a Windsor native. Medium confidence: his own recollection, reported in the Windsor Star.

Sources: Windsor Star, Hadfield first dreamed of flight in Windsor; CBC Windsor Symphony 2014

Chris Hadfield, 2011. NASA / public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Still open

  • Free portraits still needed: Breault, Hedgewick, McCurdy, ElMaraghy, Haddad, Shirley. Lazaridis now has a Royal Society CC BY-SA portrait. McGregor has free house/plant photos; McCord Notman II-94677.1 appears marked free online but identity and download still need a clean pull.
  • Patent PDFs: archive Hedgewick US3344942A; pull Watts patents only if we keep him after verification.
  • Hotel-Dieu Poison Control Centre primary docs (annual reports / Star clips).
  • Breault death date: prefer Canadian Medical Hall of Fame 9 Oct 1983 until a Star obituary PDF is checked.
  • Living-person photo and quote permission before any later publish.
  • Alex Deans (Windsor-raised, iAid): short young-inventor note possible later; needs permission; not on this page grid.
  • Faith and Newcomer Communities tab: on hold per Kyle. Assumption and Sandwich church photos stay off this page.

Credits and rights

Hubel and Lazaridis portraits: CC BY-SA 4.0. Hotel Dieu / Grace / 1913 Gardner book / Windsor Salt / McGregor house / Ford 1913: public domain. Ford Canada 1908: CC0. Patent US3344942A drawings: U.S. public domain. Campus and modern hospital: CC BY-SA. Palm-N-Turn pack photo: PD-US-no notice. Drake's illustrated portrait is by Irma Coucill, courtesy of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, used with written permission of 10 November 2026 for non-commercial use. It is not under an open licence. Building photos are place-holders with honest captions, not secret portraits. Assumption Church and Sandwich First Baptist from the research pack stay off this page. We do not buy art licences.

Research folder: research/rcr-new-sections-2026-11-10/. Seen a mistake, or have a free portrait with clear rights? Tell us.

All chapters

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