DOUGLAS LAWRENCE CHUTE

CHUTE, DOUGLAS LAWRENCE Doug Chute was a man who enriched the lives of all who knew him, a man of unparalleled personal and professional accomplishment, and a man who built a legacy through humble and patient mentorship. A free-spirited 60's youth, Doug, like many in his generation, worked blue-collar jobs to earn food, gas, and a little spending money as he crisscrossed Canada in search of his identity. While in graduate school at the University of Missouri, he unwittingly fell afoul of Hoover's FBI. His transgressions consisted of crossing the U.S. border in a sweater manufactured in communist China, possessing textbooks containing the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, travelling the southern American states in the mid-'60s in the company of an African American friend and colleague, and most damning, for the audacity of giving a lecture on the merits of Darwin's Theory of Evolution in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in the summer of 1971. Even while the American authorities struggled to build a profile of then rooted in the paranoia of the times, Doug moved to The University of Houston, where he co-established the world's first Neuropsychology Ph.D. Program. Doug concurrently worked as a fellow at NASA, conducting groundbreaking research into how the brain processes light and shadow in the microgravity of space. He investigated hibernation in non-hibernating species, which was thought, at the time, to be a necessary step in humanity's future exploration of space. He also studied the effects of total liquid ventilation, a fluid breathing system that allows astronauts and divers to survive in high-pressure environments; subsequent generations of this technology were popularized in the 1989 film, The Abyss. In 1975, the American bureaucracy concluded that Doug was likely a Canadian agent provocateur, and he was summarily invited to quit the country. In retrospect, this decision probably provided the impetus for Doug's later accomplishments as, during stops at The University of Otago in New Zealand, Chedoke McMaster Hospital, and the University of Toronto, he discovered his passion for developing diagnostic tools and treatments for people with severe traumatic brain injury. In 1984, with Hoover gone and the influence of the red scare diminished, the American Government grudgingly acknowledged that Doug was probably not an agent provocateur. His record cleared, if not expunged, and possessing a world-class reputation, Doug was offered a position at Drexel University in Philadelphia. There, he was tasked with building a neuropsychology graduate program in an institution that, at the time, didn't even offer a psychology major at the undergraduate level. By 1989, Drexel Neuropsychology was ranked among the world's elite. Leveraging Drexel's engineering expertise and developments in computer science, Doug pioneered technical solutions to diagnose and assist patients with debilitating brain injuries. He created solutions that allowed locked-in patients to speak, built some of the earliest technologies that underpin modern smart home technologies, and built software and hardware used across the globe to diagnose and treat severe head injuries. In his later years, Doug was a pioneer in the field of e-learning. Through his insistence on ensuring that the quality of e-learning content be equal to that of traditional classroom learning, Doug helped Drexel University realize one of the few e-learning programs whose academic achievements are comparable to the traditional classroom model. Doug retired from Drexel in 2020, having published over one hundred books, chapters, papers and software titles. He co-founded the American Psychological Association Journal of Neuropsychology and co-edited courses delivered over the web in neuropsychology, medical neurosciences and mild traumatic brain injury. As amazing as Doug's personal and professional accomplishments are, they speak only to what he did and not who he was. For Doug and to those who knew him, he was first and foremost a mentor, teacher, and educator. Unlike many research scientists, he revelled in his responsibilities as a faculty member and loved teaching undergraduates as much as he enjoyed mentoring his graduate students. It is no wonder that for nearly 40 years, he was rated by his students as among the best in the country. On the website, Rate My Professor, he was described as "respected, inspirational, amazing at lecturing, hot and hilarious." Every year he received letters, phone calls, and emails from former students who wished to express how his lectures had changed the course of their lives. It was Doug's conviction that one's success was not measured in personal achievement but rather in one's ability to inspire greatness in others. Dr. Douglas Lawrence Chute, who died in Oakville, on February 6, 2022, aged 74, is survived by his wife, Coco Johnson, his children, Julia Jackson, Jesse Chute, Deborah Chute Petit and husband Eric Petit, Andrew Chute and wife Alina Velieva, Daniel Johnson and wife Heidi Khoe, Benjamin Johnson and wife Samantha Starek and grandchildren, Jenna Ghassabeh, Hannah Ghassabeh, Laurie Chute, Eleanor Chute and Toby Johnson Starek. He will also be missed by his sister, Judith Redfield and her children Laura Jacobs and Ed Redfield and by the thousands of students from whom he will be remembered as a mentor, colleague, and friend. The interment will be held on February 7, 2022, at noon. Because of COVID restrictions, only immediate family and close friends can attend. In lieu of flowers, please donate to The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.