Biography:
Dr. John Archibald MacMurchy was born March 10th 1885 on a farm on the 3rd Line of Acton, Ontario. It was there in Acton that he attended public elementary and high school, and also attended the Milton Model school.

Dr. MacMurchy taught school for several years in Norval, at a small one room country school where he taught all grades. During the summers, he worked on Great Lake Boats, likely Canada Steam Ship Line, to save up for medical school.

Dr. MacMurchy took up his medical studies at the University of Toronto Medical School and graduated in 1916 at the age of 31. Dr. MacMurchy was married October 9th, 1916 to Myrtle Blair in Toronto. They were blessed with 3 children, John Charles Duncan, 1920-1923 (deceased at the age of 3), Donald 1922-1985 and Jean, 1925.

After an internship at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montréal, he worked at the Weston Sanitarium before taking on his first private practice in Kearney, where he spent 3 years, before heading to Dresden in 1919 to aid with the Flu epidemic.

Dr. MacMurchy served the citizens of Dresden with his practice for 19 years, while also serving on both the Town Council as a member, and the school board as first a chairman, then a trustee. Dr. MacMurchy was also noted as having a great interest in astronomy and was known as a “lover of all good books” especially the works of Robert Burns, a great Scottish poet. He was once the president of the Kent Medical Association.

Dr. MacMurchy’s life ended Monday, Nov. 28th, 1938 after a 2 year battle with rheumatic heart disease.

At the time of his death, he was survived by his wife Myrtle. He is still survived by his daughter Jean, who has 4 sons, Dr. John Donald Churchill, a veterinarian, James Graham Churchill, Department Head of Science in New Market, Jeffrey Charles Churchill, a teacher who lost his life in an avalanche in the Arctic, and Jay Andrew Churchill, an Engineer in Waterloo.