Your Alumni

The pure joy of learning

Family physician honoured with alumni award

By Teresa Scarlett

A family doctor can be hard to find. Luckily for University of Calgary medical students, one of the very best has been welcoming them with open arms to his Black Diamond clinic for nearly 30 years.

Since graduating from U of C’s Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Les Cunning, BA’68, MA’71, MD’74, has mentored and taught dozens of students. In recognition of his contribution to the education of family physicians over three decades, he was given the faculty’s first Alumnus of Distinction award. Cunning was honored at a faculty dinner on Oct. 27.

Cunning and the three doctors in his practice have welcomed dozens of residents, clinical clerks and students to Black Diamond early in their medical training to observe a rural family practice. His enthusiasm has been contagious—in fact, the very first resident Cunning brought to Black Diamond in 1988 has since joined the practice. 

“The goal has always been to bring students into learning situations where you are also providing community service,” Cunning says.

In addition to running a busy practice and mentoring students, Cunning has lent his expertise to strengthening rural practice through his involvement in several organizations including the Alberta International Medical Graduate (AIMG) program, which works to accredit doctors who have been trained in other countries.

Now semi-retired, Cunning still makes time to help students applying to medical school or foreign-trained docs preparing for the accreditation process.\

“I’ve always believed we get far more out of being teachers than the students do,” he says. “There is no perfect, no best, in medicine. There is something about the pure joy of learning that inspires me and I know inspires others and I’ve been proud to be part of that.”

The Alumnus of Distinction Award recognizes the outstanding contribution an alum has made to the field of medicine.