Robert Tait McKenzie ( MacKenzie) (May 26, 1867 – April 28, 1938) was a Canadian physician, educator, sculptor, athlete, soldier and Scouter. Born in Ramsay Township, Lanark County, Ontario, Canada, he attended McGill University in Montreal as an undergraduate and medical student, and was an instructor in its medical school beginning in 1894. In 1904, he moved to the United States to teach at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the 1930s, he returned to the county of his birth, retiring to the Mill of Kintail in Almonte.
He pioneered physical fitness programs in Canada.Joseph Hanaway and Richard L. Cruess, McGill Medicine – 1885 to 1936 (McGill-Queen’s University Press: Montreal, 1996), 601. During World War I, his methods and inventions for restoring and rehabilitating wounded soldiers laid a foundation for modern physiotherapy practices.
Biography
McKenzie was born on May 26, 1867, in the township of Ramsay (now part of the Town of Mississippi Mills), in Ontario's Lanark County. A childhood friend was James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, with whom he attended McGill University. As a child, McKenzie did not regard himself as an athlete, saying,
"Looking back with an eye of memory I see a rather delicate child, sensitive at being called pale-faced, a roamer of the woods and fields with a mind filled with romance that Sir Walter Scott and Fenimore Cooper alone could instill, going unwillingly to school, distracted by thoughts of the Deerslayer..."Jean S. McGill, The Joy of Effort: A Biography of R. Tait McKenzie (Clay Publishing Co.: Oshawa, 1980), 3.
In preparation for McGill he attended Ottawa Collegiate Institute (currently known as Lisgar Collegiate Institute) in 1883 at nearby Ottawa, Ontario.Frank Cosentino, Almonte's Brothers of the Wind: R. Tait McKenzie and James Naismith (General Store Publishing House: Burnstown, 1996) p22.
McGill University This attitude changed after he enrolled at McGill University in 1885.Jean S. McGill, The Joy of Effort: A Biography of R. Tait McKenzie (Clay Publishing Co.: Oshawa, 1980), 10-11. A pre-med major, he developed a great appreciation for and attraction to athletics and physical training. McKenzie became involved in acrobatics and gymnastics; set a 5-foot, 9-inch high jump record; ran hurdles; boxed; played football; and was on the tug-of-war team.Joseph Hanaway and Richard L. Cruess, McGill Medicine – 1885 to 1936 (McGill-Queen's University Press: Montreal, 1996), 233. In 1889, he won the Wickstead gold medal, which made him an acknowledged gymnastic champion.Frank Cosentino, Almonte's Brothers of the Wind: R. Tait McKenzie and James Naismith (General Store Publishing House: Burnstown, 1996), 48. McKenzie found his athletic abilities focused on sports that did not solely require strength or stamina, but rather skill, coordination, and practice.Jean S. McGill, The Joy of Effort: A Biography of R. Tait McKenzie (Clay Publishing Co.: Oshawa, 1980), 13. During his senior year at McGill, McKenzie was an intern at the University Hospital.Major James Farquharson Leys, "The Life of a Remarkable Man." The Canadian Army Journal (January 1955), 98. He graduated from McGill University in 1892 Medicinæ Doctorem et Chirurgiæ Magistrum, and then got an internship at Montreal General Hospital.Joseph Hanaway and Richard L. Cruess, McGill Medicine – 1885 to 1936 (McGill-Queen’s University Press: Montreal, 1996), 234.
After graduating, McKenzie gained experience as a physician and surgeon, developed his own medical practice and became an anatomy instructor at McGill. (Demonstrator is the entry-level academic title at a Canadian University Faculty of Medicine.) He became convinced of the need for preventive medicine.Jean S. McGill, The Joy of Effort: A Biography of R. Tait McKenzie (Clay Publishing Co.: Oshawa, 1980), 22. Training and conditioning of the body, he believed, would prevent disease, physical breakdown and accidents, so he developed a program of physical exercise.
In 1894, he became the personal family physician of the Governor General of Canada, the Marquis of Aberdeen.Jean S. McGill, The Joy of Effort: A Biography of R. Tait McKenzie (Clay Publishing Co.: Oshawa, 1980), 28-30. He spent 15 months in the Governor General's household, where he mingled with various political figures.Jean S. McGill, The Joy of Effort: A Biography of R. Tait McKenzie (Clay Publishing Co.: Oshawa, 1980), 37.
During the 1890s, McKenzie asked McGill to develop a department and school of physical education, but the university declined, citing lack of money.Joseph Hanaway and Richard L. Cruess, McGill Medicine – 1885 to 1936 (McGill-Queen’s University Press: Montreal, 1996), 55. As a compromise, in 1898, McGill appointed him as Medical Director of Physical Training, the first such appointee at a Canadian university. He wanted to customize the athletic programs for three categories of student: athletic, sedentary, or bookworm,Jean S. McGill, The Joy of Effort: A Biography of R. Tait McKenzie (Clay Publishing Co.: Oshawa, 1980), 23. and the school allowed him to start physical examinations for incoming students.
Amid his duties at McGill and his medical practice in Montreal, McKenzie sought escape in art. He first turned to watercolour sketching, and always kept a small notebook in his pocket in which he would scribble whenever something caught his eye.Jean S. McGill, The Joy of Effort: A Biography of R. Tait McKenzie (Clay Publishing Co.: Oshawa, 1980), 26. His interest in sculpting was a result of his extensive knowledge of human anatomy, his desire to portraying athletics artistically, and the limitations of portraying musculature in two-dimensional art forms.Joseph Hanaway and Richard L. Cruess, McGill Medicine – 1885 to 1936 (McGill-Queen’s University Press: Montreal, 1996), 57.
McKenzie's first untrained sculptural effort was a series of masks known as Violent Effort, Breathlessness, Fatigue and Exhaustion. To achieve these masks, he studied facial muscles under physical and emotional stress.Jean S. McGill, The Joy of Effort: A Biography of R. Tait McKenzie (Clay Publishing Co.: Oshawa, 1980), 38. His research led to an article, "The Facial Expression of Violent Effort, Breathlessness and Fatigue," published around 1900 in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology in London.
His first sculptural piece in the round was The Sprinter. The design of the piece involved measurements of limbs and torsos of many athletes, including McGill students. The Sprinter was second in a series of over 200 works that included athletic figures, military figures, busts, masks, friezes and medallions. These works of art are displayed all over Canada, the United States, England and Scotland. His sculpture earned him membership in the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
University of Pennsylvania In 1904, McKenzie took a position at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, which offered him a permanent faculty position and use of the university's a new gymnasium, football stadium, running track and other recently constructed facilities. His position as Director of the Physical Education Department came with the opportunity to develop, test and implement his theories on health and athletics.Joseph Hanaway and Richard L. Cruess, McGill Medicine – 1885 to 1936 (McGill-Queen’s University Press: Montreal, 1996), 56.
While in Philadelphia, he also worked closely with Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of Scouting.
In 1907, McKenzie met and married musician and poet Ethel O'Neil, a native of Hamilton, Ontario, while on a voyage to England.Robert Tait McKenzie, 1867–1938 (http://www.scouters.us/RTaitMcKenzie.html).
As a longtime supporter and spectator at the Olympic Games, McKenzie often exhibited works at the competition of fine arts.Major James Farquharson Leys, “The Life of a Remarkable Man,” The Canadian Army Journal (January 1955), 102. To commemorate the Olympic Games scheduled for 1912 Stockholm in, the American Olympic Committee commissioned him to create a sports medallion.Jean S. McGill, The Joy of Effort: A Biography of R. Tait McKenzie (Clay Publishing Co.: Oshawa, 1980), 90. The result was one of his most famous works, the Joy of Effort medallion. Within years, the YMCA started to use the motif in Asia.Stefan Huebner, Pan-Asian Sports and the Emergence of Modern Asia, 1913-1974. Singapore: NUS Press, 2016, 50-52. Later, at the 1932 Summer Olympics, McKenzie would win a medal for a sculpture.
In 1915, with the outbreak of the First World War, McKenzie made his way to England to enlist with the Canadian Forces. Eager to volunteer his services as a physician and surgeon, McKenzie chose instead to enlist with the Royal Army Medical Corps after encountering some red tape and delays in his paperwork.Major James Farquharson Leys, “The Life of a Remarkable Man,” The Canadian Army Journal (January 1955), 102-103. Given the commission of Lieutenant (and later becoming Major), they quickly assigned him to the physical training program for new soldiers. His first task was to inspect and report on the condition of the training camps. Once the organization of the training camps was completed, he spent six months working out of orthopedic care centers, with some of his work involving taking individuals disabled by war and designing specific prosthetic apparatus that would suit their needs.Frank Cosentino, Almonte’s Brothers of the Wind: R. Tait McKenzie and James Naismith (General Store Publishing House: Burnstown, 1996), 117. He also spent a large portion of his time helping plastic surgeon Dr. William L. Clark rehabilitate those whose faces had been disfigured by war.
After the war, McKenzie returned to his position at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1930, he left his post at the University as teaching there was no longer an enjoyable part of his life because of the bureaucracy that had become attached to his job.Frank Cosentino, Almonte’s Brothers of the Wind: R. Tait McKenzie and James Naismith (General Store Publishing House: Burnstown, 1996), 147.
Almonte In McKenzie's final years, he was an internationally recognized figure and comparatively well off, so that he had the ability to retire anywhere. In 1931, he received an invitation from the Mayor of Almonte to return to his hometown to participate in the celebration of Almonte's 50th Anniversary of Incorporation.Frank Cosentino, Almonte’s Brothers of the Wind: R. Tait McKenzie and James Naismith (General Store Publishing House: Burnstown, 1996), 148. During the celebrations, the mayor offered McKenzie "The Freedom of Almonte" - a local award of recognition. While in town, he decided to explore his old boyhood haunts and came across the old gristmill known as Baird's Mill. The mayor encouraged McKenzie and his wife to purchase the property. The property had long since become abandoned; however, it was situated in a picturesque setting, making a perfect retirement home that would kindle McKenzie's artistic imagination.Jean S. McGill, The Joy of Effort: A Biography of R. Tait McKenzie (Clay Publishing Co.: Oshawa, 1980), 142. After Ethel O'Neil McKenzie's death in 1954, the Mill of Kintail, as McKenzie and his wife Ethel renamed the property, passed eventually into management by the local natural resource management office, the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority, who open the museum to the public from May to October.