Dwight Gregory Powell (November 24, 1947 – April 30, 2025) was a Canadian

emergency medicine Emergency medicine is the medical specialty concerned with the care of illnesses or injuries requiring immediate medical attention. Emergency physicians (or "ER doctors") specialize in providing care for unscheduled and undifferentiated pa ...

physician specialist in

Foothills Foothills or piedmont are geography, geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an highland, upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low terrain, relief hill ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

and a professor of

family medicine Family medicine is a medical specialty that provides continuing and comprehensive health care for the individual and family across all ages, genders, diseases, and parts of the body. The specialist, who is usually a primary care physician, is ...

and emergency medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Calgary. He was also the founder and CEO of the nonprofit

Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society The Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service (STARS, formerly Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society) is a Canadian non-profit helicopter air ambulance organization funded by individual donors, service groups, corporate donors and government contributions. ST ...

(STARS), a

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

-based emergency transport service in Alberta and

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

Early life and education

After graduating from

Strathcona Composite High School Strathcona High School, colloquially referred to as Scona and SCHS, is a public high school located in Edmonton, Alberta. The school was referred to as Strathcona Composite High School until 2014. A $6.1 million modernization project was complet ...

and attending medical school at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

, he spent time as an observer in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. This experience showed him the advantage of using aircraft to get critically ill people to medical treatment. In the 1970s, while a resident physician at the University of Calgary, Powell served as chief of the emergency department at the university's

Foothills Medical Centre Foothills Medical Centre (FMC) is the largest hospital in the province of Alberta and is located in the city of Calgary. Foothills Medical Centre provides healthcare services to over two million people from Calgary, and surrounding regions includ ...

. He had also been trained as a pilot. "I saw people coming into our care who could be salvaged if we had a bit more speed and talent applied to the pre-hospital part of their care," he later said. So he decided to create an air medical transport service for

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

. He was a

Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada () is a regulatory college which acts as a national, nonprofit organization established in 1929 by a special Act of Parliament to oversee the medical education of specialists in Canada. The ...

Fellow in Emergency Medicine from 1983.

STARS

Knowing that helicopters were by far the most efficient means of moving severely ill or injured patients, he created a nonprofit organization, Shock Trauma Air Rescue Services Foundation, to provide helicopter rescue and transport in and around Calgary. The local

Lions Club Lions Clubs International, is an international service organization, currently headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois. , it had over 46,000 local clubs and more than 1.4 million members (including the youth wing Leo clubs, Leo) in more than 200 ge ...

provided seed money. The Foundation created its working arm, Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society (STARS), which carried out its first mission on December 1, 1985. Since then more than 42,000 flights have been carried out. The service currently operates from three bases in

, two in

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

and one in

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

. Powell served as founder, president and CEO of STARS for 27 years. In April 2012, he gave up the roles of president and CEO to Andrea Robertson, while remaining actively involved as Founder.

Recognition

In July 2006, he was appointed an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

. Also in 2006, he was given the Medal for Distinguished Service by the

Alberta Medical Association The Alberta Medical Association (AMA) is a provincial affiliate of the Canadian Medical Association, established in 1889 in the Canadian province of Alberta. It describes itself as an "advocate for its physician members, providing leadership an ...

. In November 2012, he was presented with a

Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal () or The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal was a commemorative medal created in 2012 to mark the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession in 1952. There are four versions of the medal: one iss ...

. In 2012, he was given the Marriott-Carlson Lifetime Achievement Award, presented at the annual Air Medical Transport Conference in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

. In November 2015, an official ceremony was held at the McCaig Tower at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary to name the helipad the Dr. Gregory Powell Helipad. On June 7, 2018, Powell was officially inducted to

Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame, based in The Hangar Flight Museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, commemorates and honours those whose accomplishments in aviation contributed so much to Canada's development as a nation. Founded in 1973, the Hall of ...

during a ceremony. In 2021, he was inducted to the

Alberta Order of Excellence The Alberta Order of Excellence is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of Alberta. Instituted in 1979 when Lieutenant Governor Frank C. Lynch-Staunton granted royal assent to the Alberta Order of Excellence Act, the order is admi ...

Death

Powell died surrounded by family at Foothills Hospice in

Okotoks Okotoks ( , originally ) is a town in the Calgary Metropolitan Region, Calgary Region of Alberta, Canada. It is on the Sheep River, approximately south of Downtown Calgary. Okotoks has emerged as a bedroom community of Calgary. According to t ...

, on April 30, 2025, aged 77.

References

External links

Our Founder
–

STARS A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of ...

Dr. Greg Powell

Government of Alberta The Government of Alberta () is the body responsible for the administration of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. In modern Canadian use, the term ''Government of Alberta'' refers specifically to the executive� ...

Dwight Gregory Powell
at

Dr. Greg Powell, BSc'68, MD'72

*
Dr. D. Gregory Powell

Governor General of Canada The governor general of Canada () is the federal representative of the . The monarch of Canada is also sovereign and head of state of 14 other Commonwealth realms and resides in the United Kingdom. The monarch, on the Advice (constitutional la ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, D. Gregory 1947 births 2025 deaths Canadian emergency physicians Scientists from Calgary Officers of the Order of Canada Members of the Alberta Order of Excellence