Don Stuss Memorial
Don Stuss 1941-2019
Don Stuss was one of the foremost contemporary neuropsychologists, world leader in the neuroscientific study of the prefrontal cortex, and founding director of two leading neuroscience institutes (the Rotman Research Institute and the Ontario Brain Institute). Don's science always started with clinical observations and was centered on questions central to humanity, such as how we view ourselves and others and how we successfully function in the world. In the same vein, Don brought his humanity into all of his interactions, leaving many indelible impressions throughout the world in his personal and professional networks.
The purpose of this website is for people touched by Don to share thoughts and memories as we celebrate his life and grieve his loss. To leave a comment on the page please click here. If you have any photos that you would like to share in the gallery please send them in an email to blevine@research.baycrest.org.
-Brian Levine
Fergus Craik
In my first social meetings with Don I was greatly taken by his outgoing personality, his warmth and humour, yet also by his obvious seriousness about science and indeed fundamental seriousness about how life should be lived. My first professional interactions with him were in the context of the search committee to appoint the first Director of the Rotman Research Institute. We had an excellent slate of candidates, but Don was outstanding in conveying his enthusiasm and his vision of how a new research group might evolve. Joe Rotman was determined that Don should take on the job, and Joe was a hard man to turn down! So Don was duly installed as Director and with his first few appointments, padded out by the involvement of several willing locals, made the RRI an international success story in an astonishingly short time. He was an excellent clinician and research neuropsychologist but a near-genius at scientific management. Through a mixture of creative ideas, networking, cajolery and plain hard graft he put together a coherent group of scientists who enjoyedworking together under his benign yet deeply committed leadership. He sometimes employed quite wily methods to get his way. I remember one fraught meeting with a U of T department which ended with Don making his (generally disfavoured) case in a highly emotional outburst and then storming out of the room. I followed him out, concerned about his apparently out-of-control reaction, but he immediately turned to me with a big grin; "So – how did I do?" Impressively, as it turned out, his arguments were adopted!
After briefly 'retiring' from the RRI he was persuaded (Joe Rotman again!) to take on the new Ontario Brain Institute, and again made this very different group a huge success in a very short time. He now had to deal with top-ranked politicians and civil servants as well as with top medical researchers and hospital presidents from across the province, but again rose to the challenge – to the benefit of brain research and mental health across Ontario. All part of the Stuss legacy.
Don was hugely influential in my own career. Like Endel Tulving I encountered mandatory retirement from U of T at age 65, but Don took me on as a Rotman scientist, enabling me to extend my research career for almost two further decades. My wife and I became close friends with Don and his family, first with Kaaren and then with Lourenza, sharing good times, too much food and drink, but always with a sense of fun. On one trip to the US we passed quickly through a small town, and glancing down a side street both Don and I saw a big sign saying 'Brain Institute'. Intrigued by this unlikely discovery we returned the next day to investigate, only to find it was actually 'The Brian Institute' (see the piece by Mick Alexander!) – an Institute whose purpose was unclear to us. Nonetheless, Don and I insisted on having our pictures taken by the sign, giggling like schoolboys, while Institute staff peered at us wonderingly from their windows. Finally, I append a picture of Don and myself on a trip to the Alps, hoping for a part in The Sound of Music – we never heard back! Fun times; I'm so glad to have had Don in my life and will miss him greatly.
​Obituaries written by Don's friends and colleagues:
Brian Levine and Gus Craik.
The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Mick Alexander, Terry Picton & Tim Shallice
Canadian Psychologist
Gus Craik & Brian Levine
Read it here.
Appreciation of Don in the Globe and Mail. Click here.
Call for Abstracts: Special Issue of Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience in honour of Don Stuss