Dr. Harry Rosen

Rosen has spent his entire career with the MUHC, beginning his connection with the hospital as a young BSc and DDS student at McGill University. His parents encouraged him to become a bookkeeper and his own youthful aspirations led him toward engineering but, as Rosen recalls, “there were very few engineering possibilities for Jewish kids at that time.” Always skilled at working with his hands, Rosen turned instead to dentistry, where he was quickly met by the enthusiastic support of his professors.

After his initial training, Rosen’s primary passion soon became teaching, as he grew to be the beloved professor of countless students at McGill University while instructing them in the finer aspects of prosthodontics (restorative dentistry). Throughout his half-century of teaching, Rosen has embraced the life of a true Renaissance man, keeping his artistic side stimulated through the medium of sculpture. Having begun by installing rock terraces at his country home in the Laurentians, Rosen soon discovered that his pragmatic stonework also had an artistic application and began work on huge stone sculptures. Now, his property is inhabited by these immense installations, documenting his progress as an artist as well as his evolution as a person. His Universal Woman and Young Hercules sculptures speak to his love of humanity, while his most recently completed sculpture, The Ascent (pictured here) is, as Rosen himself describes, “a metaphor for life.” He goes on, “through life we experience a series of triumphs over barriers. From childhood, we ascend physically, professionally, and spiritually: life is continuity.” The sculpture, a huge stone work depicting a man climbing a steep rock wall and reaching to the sky, one of Rosen’s favourite sayings, a line from the poetry of Robert Browning: “a man’s reach should exceed his grasp—or what’s a heaven for?”

Professionally, Dr. Rosen has long been striving and ascending, having recently achieved one of dentistry’s highest honours, the William John Gies Award. In October 2008, Dr. Rosen received this prize from the American College of Dentists. The award recognizes a member’s broad, exceptional, and distinguished contributions to the profession and society while upholding an outstanding level of leadership and professionalism. Dr. Rosen is the only Canadian in the last 50 years to receive this award. He explains, “the award came as a result of my productivity in dentistry and elsewhere. I’m happy about the award, because it puts everything in its proper place. It’s a culmination of a lot of years in the field and a lot of hard work and it’s a great honour to be singled out amongst 7,000 other Fellows of the American College of Dentistry.”

Of course, Dr. Rosen is not one to rest on his laurels. He continues to lecture and publish and remains active in his profession. Dr. Rosen is currently Professor Emeritus at McGill’s Faculty of Dentistry, and is an integral part of the Multidisciplinary Residency Program at the Montreal General Hospital Site of the McGill University Health Centre. He says warmly, “my best connection academically is with the residents at the MGH. I’m with my residents every week of the year! Every Tuesday morning at 7:30, I speak to them for an hour and then we go to the clinic and problem-solve complex cases. That’s been going on for more than 40 years. Now, the MUHC is home to me: it’s a source of inspiration and I can’t wait to see what happens to the hospital as a result of the Redevelopment Project.” The MGH is so much a part of Dr. Rosen’s life that a 28-minute documentary entitled Harry Rosen: Renaissance Man and broadcast on Mountain Lake PBS, was primarily filmed within the confines of MGH site. The film, which premiered during a gala reception at McGill’s Moyse Hall in 2006, traces the life and professional development of Dr. Rosen.

Wanting to give back to the students and institutions that have so long been driving forces in his life, Rosen established the Dr. Harry Rosen Endowed Clinical Teaching Fund at McGill University Faculty of Dentistry—a first at a Canadian University. His Fund supports young clinical teachers at the Faculty. To date, the Fund has received donations from corporate and private donors totaling over $300,000. What’s more, a grateful patient of Dr. Rosen’s wanted to ensure that the good dentist’s legacy continued on for years to come and established the Dr. Harry Rosen Entrance Scholarship and the Dr. Harry Rosen Scholarship for Excellence in Dentistry at McGill University. Both scholarships exist in perpetuity and help fund the studies of the next generations of dentists, who will take the profession beyond the 21st century.

Dr. Rosen is a past president of Canadian Academy of Restorative Dentistry and has received the Award of Excellence from the American Academy of Operative Dentistry. On top of his Fellowship with the American College of Dentists, Rosen has been recognized as a Fellow of several well-reputed organizations such as the International College of Dentists, l’Academie Dentaire du Quebec, and the Pierre Fauchard Academy. He is the proud husband of Delores, the father of three grown children, the grandfather of eight growing grand-children, and has no plans to retire any time soon.