Douglas John Buchan was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on 2 April 1921. He graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 1942 with a B.A., and received his MD. from the University of Manitoba in 1946. Prior to doing postgraduate work in Winnipeg and New York, he practised medicine at Kelvington and the Medical Arts Clinic in Regina. He was Commonwealth Fellow in Medicine at Cornell University Medical School from 1952-54. His first appointment at the U of S was as instructor, in 1955; he became an Assistant Professor in 1957 and Full Professor in July, 1969. Buchan died on February 21, 1986.