Continuing a tradition of service: New award empowers commitment to rural family medicine

Mar 20, 2026

Two brothers smiling — *James and Denis Conway.*

For James Conway, family doctors are lifelines for remote and underserved communities where access to care can mean the difference between thriving and surviving. It’s a reality he understands deeply, and one that inspired him to turn gratitude into action.

James created the Denis M G Conway Award for Family Medicine at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine in memory of his late brother, Denis Conway (MD 1977), a physician who dedicated much of his career to providing care in towns, communities and in remote areas across Canada and around the world. The award will be given to graduating U of T medical students who have an interest in pursuing rural medicine or practicing in a smaller city or town in Ontario.

A commitment to serving rural patients

“Denis’s understanding of being a physician was that you were there to serve the best interest of every patient,” James says. “I hope this award makes life a little easier for someone who is committing to that kind of service, because they will make people’s lives better.”

An MD graduate of the Faculty of Medicine (now the Temerty Faculty of Medicine), Denis then trained in tropical medicine in London, England. In addition to practicing internationally for six months each year, he was also devoted to serving remote and underserved communities throughout Canada.

Denis’s understanding of being a physician was that you were there to serve the best interest of every patient. I hope this award makes life a little easier for someone who is committing to that kind of service, because they will make people’s lives better.

He continued practicing in this way until the 1980s, when the HIV epidemic emerged in Toronto. At that time, very little was known about the disease. Hearing speculation that it could be linked to tropical diseases, Denis decided to move back to Toronto permanently and began working as a general practitioner with an HIV/AIDS specialty.

“Little was known about AIDS, except that it was infectious and a lot of people were dying,” James recalls. “He would make house calls to the homes of his patients at a time when most were uneasy about close contact with anybody with AIDS.”

Denis’s understanding of being a physician was that you were there to serve the best interest of every patient. I hope this award makes life a little easier for someone who is committing to that kind of service, because they will make people’s lives better.

Denis passed away June 14, 2024, in Toronto. The news of his death sent ripples around the world, with the Conways receiving hundreds of letters from patients Denis had treated over the course of his career – from India and Pakistan to Saint Lucia and Kenya, from Northbrook to Bella Coola, as well as from local families of his HIV patients. The outpouring of gratitude demonstrated to incredible importance of service to James.

“Denis showed me how important it is for people’s sense of security in our society to have a GP,” he says. “I created this award to show students how important I think they are – not because they have to live up to anything, but because they’ve made a good choice. They have an opportunity to do something evidently important with their lives.”

A family history intertwined with U of T

The value of education was instilled in Conway and his siblings from a young age by their mother, Catherine. The first in her immediate family to attend a post-secondary education, she was only able to afford one year of tuition before moving on to the working world.

“She instilled in all of us the value of higher education,” James explains. “If you have all of this at your fingertips, you absolutely take advantage of it when you can.”

The family took their mother’s advice to heart. In addition to Denis, James’s eldest brother, Brian, studied philosophy and English while their sister, Patricia, and brother, John, earned law degrees – all from U of T.

But the Conway family’s history with U of T and Temerty Medicine stretches back far before James and his siblings. At the turn of the 20^th century, James’s grandfather’s cousin, George Francis McBride, was the first in the family to attend U of T for medicine. This was a notable achievement, James remarks, as family tradition was to support further education for at most one family member – typically in order to join the priesthood.

Unfortunately, tragedy struck soon after George graduated in 1910. He passed away from tuberculosis, as did his sister Rose, who cared for him when he fell ill. Soon after, their two other sisters, Mary and Margaret, as well as their father also died of the disease and of related illness.

Shared family values: service to community

In reflecting on this historic family tragedy, James is struck by their dedication and spirit of service. Despite the clear risk, each family member stayed close to look after their ill siblings. “I honour the commitment of the whole family,” says James.

That same spirit, he hopes, will resonate with the students who receive the Denis M. G. Conway Award. In choosing to practice family medicine in underserved areas, they are choosing presence and service above all things – values that shaped his brother’s career and their ancestors’ toughest moments, and which continue to define the work of family doctors today.

By Emma Jones