Neil was a Canadian sociologist, best known for his lifelong dedication to tobacco control, especially through his decades of extremely effective work with the non-profit group Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, and his years of international work as a senior staff member at World Health Organization in Geneva. On a personal note, he was devoted to his wife Barbara and their four children.

Neil came to tobacco control through the route of social medicine. He had graduated from the London Central Collegiate Institute (now London Central Secondary School) in 1964. He completed a Bachelor’s then a Master’s degree in sociology at the University of Western Ontario. From his graduation onwards, he became involved in the fields of health and medicine. He started working specifically on tobacco issues in the 1970s.

I first met Neil personally at the 6^th World Conference on Tobacco or Health held in Tokyo in 1987, and from that moment on we collaborated and kept in contract through meetings, conferences and emails. His heart was always in Canada, but he also had an abiding interest in global tobacco control, particularly in low and middle-income countries.

Neil’s outward appearance as a ‘gentle giant’ belied his underlying determination to fight the tobacco epidemic, and in particular to challenge the tobacco and vape industries. In an interview in 2012, he said ““Since the very earliest days of health information coming to light from the early 1950s, the tobacco industry has been systematically and deliberately throwing sand in the gears, in various ways. They’ve been creating scientific doubt (as to the truth of whether or not smoking is harmful), where none exists. And to this day, they fudge on questions about the health hazards of smoking.”

From 1991-1999 he took on a truly global role when he worked at World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva on tobacco issues, just at the time WHO was setting the wheels in motion for the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, an international treaty on tobacco regulation.

The 27th April 1998 was probably the most important single day of Neil’s working life.

Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland had just been appointed Director General of WHO, and was looking for priority Cabinet projects for her term of office. She invited groups of  various specialists to make representation on their own topic in the hope of it being selected.

She invited Neil, who was working in WHO in Geneva at the time, along with Richard Peto from the University of Oxford, and myself, to make a combined presentation for a rationale for tobacco to be given priority.

Neil focused on a simple but effective graph showing tobacco deaths rising steadily, yet funding for tobacco control decreasing on a WHO and global scale. Richard talked about the magnitude of current and future tobacco-attributable disease and death. I showed appalling pictures of tobacco industry advertising, promotion and sponsorship, widespread around the world at the time. We could all see Dr Brundtland was moved and horrified by the three presentations.

Our submission was adopted by Dr Brundtland and, on taking office, she immediately formed the Tobacco-free Initiative (TFI). The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) followed on from this – WHO’s first ever convention – and the rest is history.

Our talks had complemented each other and made it happen.

Farewell Neil, your legacy lives on as an inspiration for us all.

International photo:

1998 10 Thai Bangkok WHO SEARO Mtg (Collishaw, Obei, Mackay, Hatai)

Proposing the FCTC