Unhappily, Roger Keith, as of this issue, has decided to step down as Coeditor of the Canadian Journal of Surgery. I am grateful for this opportunity to thank him publicly for his role as colleague and mentor.
In the early 1990s, Roger played an important role in restructuring and refinancing the Journal, both through his position as Secretary of the Canadian Association of General Surgeons and as a member of the Canadian Medical Association’s Publications Committee. Then, in 1992, on the retirement of Coeditors Barber Mueller and Lloyd MacLean, he was the first of their successors selected, and as such was the senior of the coeditors. Much hard thinking and planning has gone into the evolution of the Journal and its new features, and in this creative aspect of coeditorship Roger played a key role.
But now, the press of hospital and university affairs, his involvement with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, his roles as Past President of the Central Surgical Association, President-Elect of the Canadian Association of General Surgeons and member of the Advisory Council for Surgery of the American College of Surgeons, plus a myriad other tasks, have prompted Roger’s reluctant decision to step down.
Roger will be missed. I hope that in his new tasks he won’t forget the journal he has helped to build. Both Jim Waddell, who takes over from Roger as Coeditor, and I look forward to his advice and counsel as we try to take the Canadian Journal of Surgery to new heights.
Thanks, Roger. May the wind be at your back.