Ian Robertson

I met Don in Utrecht at a conference around 1994. What struck me most was his gusto – like big warm waves crashing onto a summer beach. He told me that first time I met him that he would like to head off into northern Canada on a motorbike – but he got distracted into creating the wonderful Rotman Research Institute instead. His enormous professional success with the Rotman was mirrored by a tough transition, personally speaking, from Ottawa to Toronto. He told me how he had turned down Joe Rotman at least three times before finally being persuaded to make that move which ended up benefitting our field so much. Don was proud of having been a monk and one sensed a sort of yearning in him that translated itself into his huge personal warmth and driving ambition for his science. At heart however, he was a clinical neuropsychologist – probably the best in the world – who for many years missed the very human and humane detective work that is unpicking the brain’s malfunctioning and trying to help rehabilitate it. He returned to that work late in his career. I salute a fine clinician, scientist… and human being.