(15 Aug. 1918-28 June 1967), physician. (Dr Mutch, Dr John F. Mutch) Born in Toronto. Parents: Rev. John M. Mutch and his wife Marjorie (Marjory) Fraser. He spent some of his early years in Nova Scotia. In 1942, he obtained his medical degree from the University of Toronto. Earlier, he had studied at the University of Sask. In WWII, Dr Mutch was a medical officer with the Calgary Tanks in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. On 1 July 1947, Dr Mutch began a medical practice in Maxville in what had formerly been the home and office of Dr Bennett McEwan. Dr Mutch died in Glengarry Memorial Hospital, Alexandria, after a long illness, at the early age of 48, having been a physician at Maxville for some twenty years. The year before Dr Mutch’s death, Bishop Brodeur awarded this Protestant doctor the Diocesan Medal. A well-regarded, much-missed doctor, he was liked as well as respected by his patients. Burial was at Innisfil, Ont. He was married in 1942 to Margaret J. Cook (d. 29 Aug. 1999) of Painswick, Ont. (four children) Mrs Mutch was director of nursing at Maxville Manor from 1968 till her retirement in 1984. She and her daughter Barbara have both been inducted into the Glengarry Sports Hall of Fame. Barbara Mutch (Mrs Gavin Cameron) was coxswain of the Canadian women’s rowing team at the 1976 Olympics. A chronically-ill Inuit woman, Maggie Hatuk, who spent much of the last ten years of her life at the home of Dr and Mrs Mutch in Maxville, died in April 1964 aged 26 and is buried in Maxville Cemetery. (obituary, Glengarry News 30 April 1964)
Glengarry News 29 June and 13 July1967 * Maxville (1991) 778-781 (with poem of tribute by Mrs W. Hall) * death of wife, GN 1 Sept. 1999 (obit. and Gordon Winter’s column) * sports biography of Mrs Gavin Cameron (Barbara Mutch) by Angus H. McDonell, GN 21 Aug. 1991 (with drawing by Douglas A. Fales) * Russ Dewar, “Mutch Joins Daughter in Sports Hall,” biographical sketch of Barbara Mutch (portrait) on induction into Glengarry Sports Hall of Fame, GN 31 July 1996 * Standard Freeholder 26 June 1947, GN 27 June 1947, Dr Mutch to open medical practice in Maxville