Contributed by Alisa Loo

When I moved to Kitchener-Waterloo for family medicine residency, one of the first people I met was Nate. We were new R1’s together under the mentorship of Dr. Joe Lee. The first few months of residency, Nate and I shared many clinics together. And every morning without fail, when I came in, he was already there, having arrived early to prepare for clinic. His dedication to his patients and to ongoing learning was immediately noticeable.

As many of our residency cohort may attest, we were a slow bunch to get to know each other and socialize. When Nate proposed and organized our resident volleyball team, using the same team name “The Beta Blockers” as his winning team at Queen’s, this was a turning point for bringing our residency group together. Although he missed much of the first season due to his medical leave, when he returned, he raised the bar of how we played and worked together as a team. He was easily the most advanced and athletic player on our team, yet he enjoyed playing together and gave gentle pointers to improve our play. He was a humble, kind and generous spirit, which made us all more awestruck when he consistently smashed down epic untouchable volleyball hits.

I will miss Nate. I hope to carry with me his spirit of kindness, passion for team sports and dedication to medicine. My deepest condolences to Kristy and his family.