Through a glass darkly.

After graduating from the University of British Columbia (UBC) Dr. Gibson entered McGill University to study medicine but interrupted his studies to go to Oxford University (as a demonstrator in physiology), where he received his doctorate. He resumed his medical studies at McGill University, graduating in 1941. After serving in the clinical investigation units of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) he became deputy director of medical research at the RCAF headquarters in Ottawa. This was the post he held when he wrote the editorial "Medical education for 1980," which is reprinted as our Encore selection for this issue, starting on page 665. After the war Dr. Gibson worked at the Montreal Neurological Institute until 1948 and then by a circuitous route went on to UBC as Kinsmen professor of neurologic research. Following a sabbatical year in Marseille in 1958, he was appointed professor of the history of medicine and science at UBC, a post he held until 1975. His "retirement" has hardly been quiet. He has been chairman of the Universities Council of British Columbia and from 1985 to 1991 chancellor of the University of Victoria.