The Donor: Gerard Losier
The Gift: $2.5-million
The Cause: Miramichi Regional Hospital Foundation
The Reason: To help buy medical equipment
Health care runs deep in Gerard Losier’s family. His grandfather, Arthur, started practising medicine in 1902, working at a hospital for lepers in Tracadie, N.B., before moving to Miramichi, about 200 kilometres north of Moncton. Arthur began a long line of Losier doctors that has included Gerard Losier’s father, uncle, brother and a niece who is finishing medical school. Another niece is a dentist.
“We’ve actually provided health care to the Miramichi, if you put us all together numerically, for way over 100 years as a family,” Dr. Losier said from his office at Miramichi Regional Hospital where he has worked for nearly 30 years.
The family’s service to the community has gone beyond health care. Two of Dr. Losier’s aunts were nuns and his father and grandfather “were always doing things as physicians for no pay,” he said. “We came from a family that kind of put service above financial gain.”
Dr. Losier is following suit. He recently donated $1-million to the Miramichi Regional Hospital Foundation, bringing his total contribution to $2.5-million over the last four years. The money came from investments and hard work, he said. “I have a comfortable living and I’m not into pursuit of personal assets.”
The donations aren’t earmarked for anything specific. Instead, Dr. Losier wants it put aside to buy badly needed equipment. He said the hospital has been battling the provincial government for years over financing issues and equipment needs such as a magnetic resonance imaging unit. “We were promised an MRI in the last election. We are waiting to see if we are going to get it,” he said. “I felt that in the long term, if you put enough money into the foundation you can buy whatever you want.”
Dr. Losier said he is proud of his family’s long contribution to the community’s health care. He added with a chuckle that it looks like the tradition will continue. “I have a 12-year-old son who says he is going to be a plastic surgeon.”
