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Waterloo Region Generations
A record of the people of Waterloo Region, Ontario. |
Dr. Louis Victor Wiliam Vincent Lang
1901 - 1987 (85 years)-
Name Louis Victor Wiliam Vincent Lang Prefix Dr. Born 6 Aug 1901 Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada 
[1, 2, 3] Gender Male FindAGrave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/183519557 Interesting medicine Residence 1911 Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada [1] Roman Catholic Residence 1921 74 Weber St. W., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada [2] Residence 1921 Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada [2] Roman Catholic Eby ID Number Waterloo-185599 Died 20 Feb 1987 Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Buried Woodland Cem., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Person ID I185599 Generations Last Modified 3 Mar 2025
Father Edmund John Lang, b. 21 Dec 1864, Neustadt, Normanby Twp., Grey Co., Ontario, Canada , d. 3 Nov 1937, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada (Age 72 years) Mother Marie Catherine Von Neubronn, b. 25 Nov 1865, Preston (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada , d. 26 Apr 1943, Waterloo City, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada (Age 77 years) Family ID F184444 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family Roxy M. Roche, b. 1913, Cochrane, Glackmeyer Twp., Cochrane District, Ontario , d. 9 Mar 2011, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada (Age 98 years) Married 11 Oct 1937 Toronto, York Co., Ontario, Canada Children 1. Peter Lang, MP 2. William "Bill" Lang 3. John E. Lang 4. Paul Lang 5. Mary Lang, d. Yes, date unknown Last Modified 4 Mar 2025 Family ID F300396 Group Sheet | Family Chart
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Notes - Focus
Dr. Louis Lang: General practitioner for more than 50 years
By SHEILA HANNON
Record Staff Writer
Dr. Louis Lang isn't reluctant to talk about his achievements during a 51-year career in the Twin Cities.
He just refuses.
He'll mention he was a coroner for 38 years, on the board of health for 18, many of them as chairman, and that he was the first president of the Kitchener Waterloo Academy of Medicine.
But it takes a great deal of persuasion and some very direct questions to pry a few details out about events such as the Great Tonsil Caper.
Even then, the 76-year-old general practitioner plays down his role.
He claims his contributions to medicine in Kitchener-Waterloo "haven't been that great at all."
And he's not sure why the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) and the K-W academy, which he founded 28 years ago, honored him Friday night.
Lionel Mausberg, academy president, says it's customary for the academy to honor those few members who practise for 50 years.
But in addition to treating thousands of patients, Lang has been an active promoter of organized medicine and public health.
The list of offices the Kitchener native has held is long, including chief of staff and chief of medicine at St. Mary's Hospital, a member of the lay advisory board there for 32 years and an honorary member of the succeeding board of trustees.
He was a charter member of what is now the College of Family Physicians of Canada and a member of various committees of the OMA and the Canadian Medical Association.
He was the last president of the North Waterloo Medical Society and the charter president of its successor, the K-W academy.
But the offices are only an indication of the respect he's earned from his colleagues and his patients.
"He actually does take a personal interest in his patients. He's sort of a Marcus Welby and an Albert Schweitzer rolled into one," says Dr. Charlie O'Connell.
Lang has always been reluctant to talk about himself to the press. His professional ethics forbid anything that might be construed as advertising and "I don't think it's in good taste for someone to do much talking about themselves," he says.
The Doctor is surprised that a reporter is asking about the Great Tonsil Caper.
He leans back in a green swivel chair in his office at 74 Weber St. W. and carefully chooses his words.
The incident occured in the early '30s when the majority of children had their tonsils removed.
The board of health (and Lang stresses he wasn't a member at the time) made an arrangement for North Waterloo Medical Society members to perform tonsillectomies for $5 instead of the usual $25 and anesthetists would work for $5 instead of the regular $10 fee.
School nurses made a diagnosis and booked patients in groups. But Lang and other doctors weren't happy doing the operations "wholesale" without without proper diagnosis.
After one operating session, Lang noticed nurses counting the removed tonsils.
"I had a feeling there was something wrong because they were counting them and re-checking them and I knew they were worried," he recalls.
There were 13 sets of tonsils but only 12 charts. However, there were 13 patients. After the anesthetic wore off, a nurse found the answer.
"These patients were taken up in the elevator in groups," Lang says. "There was one little fellow having his tonsils out. They hadn't been in the country too long so his brother came with him to act as an interpreter.
"He was good in the English language, but not good enough to talk himself out of this. He just got in with the gang."
Lang mentioned the incident to the publisher of The Record. The paper published a humorous editorial that was picked up by Canadian Press, a wire service carrying news across Canada.
"That stopped that nonsense," says Lang. "There were no longer tonsillectomies without patients being examined by a doctor first."
Lang is obviously comfortable in his office in the grey stucco building on Weber Street. He should be. His family moved there when he was five years old.
When he graduated from the University of Toronto Medical School he began his practice in the family home. He married in 1937, and he and his wife, Roxy, lived there until 1955.
After they moved to Stirling Avenue, where they still live, Lang converted the 14-room house to accommodate four doctors' offices. It was the first medical centre in the city.
Lang shares his four-room suite with his son, Peter. Another son, Bill, practises medicine in Vancouver while sons John and Paul are lawyers in Kitchener. The youngest, David, is a graduate student in economics.
Framed documents on the office's rough plaster wall show that Lang received the first Award of Merit given by the City of Kitchener in 1968, a Centennial Medal for "valuable service to the nation," a life membership in the OMA and a knighthood from the Pope.
Lang doesn't spend as much time in the office as he used to. His sons estimate he's cut down from the more than 80-hour week customary during his heyday to a more sedate 40 hours.
He calls that part-time. "I look after my old patients who at one time were my young patients. I have patients that I have seen through four generations."
The bespectacled doctor, who tinkers with anything mechanical and reads medical journals avidly, plans to keep practising as long as possible .
"I wouldn't be happy without working."
Kitchener-Waterloo Record, Mon, Jun 12, 1978 Page 3
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Waterloo Region Record Longtime MD, Louis Lang dies
Dr. Louis V. Lang, founding president of the K-W Academy of Medicine and a general practitioner in the Twin Cities for more than 50 years, died Friday night at St. Mary's Hospital. He was 85.
Lang graduated in medicine from the University of Toronto and after interning at St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, he opened an office in Kitchener. A native of Kitchener, Lang held many offices locally including chief of staff and chief of medicine at St. Mary's Hospital, membership on the hospital lay advisory board for 32 years and an honorary membership on the succeeding board of trustees.
He was a charter member of what is now the College of Family Physicians of Canada and a member of various committees of the Ontario Medical Association and the Canadian Medical Association.
Lang was also the last president of the North Waterloo Medical Society and became the charter president of its successor, the K-W Academy of Medicine in 1950.
He became a member of the Kitchener Board of Health in 1951, and was elected its chairman in 1964. Lang, who was also county coroner for 38 years, remained on the board until 1969.
Dr. Louis Lang In 1975, he received a life membership in the Ontario Medical Association.
Such honors are given annually by the association to doctors over the age of 65 who are judged to have made an outstanding contribution to the association.
He practised at 74 Weber St. W., Kitchener, in the grey stucco building where he moved with his family when he was five years old.
He and his wife lived there from 1926 until 1955, when they moved to Stirling Avenue.
Lang converted the 14-room house to accommodate four doctors' offices. It was the city's first medical centre. He shared his four-room suite with his son, Peter, who served as Kitchener MP from 1980 to 1984.
Another son, Bill, is associate professor of surgery in Vancouver while sons John and Paul are lawyers in Kitchener.
The younger in Ottawa son, David, is lawyer in Ottawa.
Among honors that came Lang's way were the first Award of Merit given by the City of Kitchener in 1968, a Centennial Medal for valuable service to the nation and a knighthood from the Pope.
The centennial edition of the St. Jerome's high school yearbook was dedicated to Lang who was called "an outstanding graduate, a kind adviser, a wise doctor and dear friend." He attended the school from 1915 to 1919.
In addition to his five sons, he is survived by his wife, Roxy, nine grandchildren, Michael, Cathy, Lisa, Christine, Jamie, Michael, Mark, Wendy and Trina; and a sister, Lorley Brown of London, Ont.
Friends may visit at the Ratz-Bechtel funeral home, 621 King St. W... Sunday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Prayers will be said at 8 p.m.
The funeral will be at St. Anne's RC Church, 269 East Ave., Kitchener, Monday at 11 a m., with interment at Woodlawn Cemetery.
Kitchener-Waterloo Record, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada Saturday, February 21, 1987
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Born - 6 Aug 1901 - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada 
Residence - Roman Catholic - 1911 - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada 
Residence - 1921 - 74 Weber St. W., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - Roman Catholic - 1921 - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada 
Married - 11 Oct 1937 - Toronto, York Co., Ontario, Canada Died - 20 Feb 1987 - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada 
Buried - - Woodland Cem., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada = Link to Google Earth
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