I'm a Bear: Autobiography of a Golden Doodle as told to Don Ranney

Don Ranney grew up in Toronto, studied anthropology and linguistics at Victoria College and graduated in medicine at U Toronto in 1958. After 6 years studying surgery in Great Britain, where he married and became a Captain in the Special Air Service, with a Fellowship in the Royal College of Surgeons he went with his wife and three children to India to spend his life performing reconstructive surgery on victims of leprosy. Political problems there, described in When Cobras Laugh, led to a return to Canada to become Associate Professor at U Waterloo, where he taught for 24 years and established the School of Anatomy. There he became known as a Renaissance man because of his broad interests and widely disparate areas of expertise. Years earlier, as a member of the American Federation of Musicians, he had established a jazz band and club in Kingston, and introduced lacrosse to the children of Toronto by establishing the East Toronto Lacrosse League. While at U Waterloo he obtained a diploma in television production at The Banff Centre, researched biomechanics of dance, and was team physician for many local and national sports teams including the Canadian Men’s Softball Team that won the Pan-American Gold Medal in 1983. While teaching anatomy and sports medicine, he published more than a hundred scientific papers on topics that varied from anatomy, biomechanics, muscle physiology, and surgery of the hand, to work-related injuries, and neuroanatomy of chronic pain. At the same time he ran a part-time clinic for athletes and those injured at work or in motor vehicle accidents. He has a diploma from the American Board of Disability Analysts and is a member of 15 professional organizations, including The Writers’ Union of Canada. In his eighth decade he decided to slow down a little and tell about his exciting life. He hasn’t jumped out of an airplane for thirty years, but if you look in the right places you may still catch him on his rollerblades.