Glenbow Archives Ref. # NA-2953-1
Dr. Edouard-Hector Rouleau was an ideal family
physician—kindly, courteous to the last degree, always charitable,
compassionate and self-sacrificing. His almost impetuous generosity and his
dislike of ordinary business routine were typical. Willing patient ordinarily
has to exercise much persistence to make it possible to pay even their long
outstanding debts to him. He never refused a service; now would he take any fee
for visits on the Sabbath. Obstetrics was Rouleau’s speciality, although he did
general practice as well. Dr. Rouleau was obviously an educated and cultured
gentleman. He was born at Isle Verte in Temisconata County, Quebec, on October
31, 1843. He graduated from Laval Normal School in 1861 then went to Nicolet
College and took his medical course at Laval University medical Department,
graduating in 1870. The lure of the prairies had smitten Edouard Rouleau for he
settled in the hamlet of Calgary as one of its first registered practitioners
in 1870. On November 17, 1888, Dr.
Rouleau was appointed Belgian Consul for the North West Territories, a position
he kept until his death. The King of Belgium rewarded his services with the
title. “Chevalier de l’Ordre de Leopold,” by the reason of his kindness and
assistance to needy Belgian settlers in the Canadian West. Rouleau became one of the first members of the
North West territories Medical Association which was organized on August 1889. This
was the forerunner of the Alberta Medical Association, now the Alberta Section
of the Canadian Medical Association. He was also one of the fourteen practitioners
from the present Alberta who were registered in 1889. Dr. Rouleau was Surgeon
to the North West Mounted Police and retained this positioned shortly after the
change in government in 1911, when he was discharged on the accepted practice
of those days of political patronage. The doctor was always an ardent party
follower but was never offensive or meddling. Nevertheless, the change in
government meant his removal, even though he had fulfilled his duties faithfully
and well for a quarter of a century and was then aged with failing health. Broken-hearted,
he sought sympathy from his family and friends. He died shortly afterwards of
cancer of the liver and was buried on October 1, 1912.
