Paul David

Paul David, CC, GOQ, MD (December 25, 1919 – April 5, 1999) was a Canadian cardiologist, founder of the Montreal Heart Institute, and Senator.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, the son of Louis-Athanase David and Antonia Nantel, he received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Paris in 1939 and his MD from the Université de Montréal in 1944. He specializsed in cardiology in Boston at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1946 and in Paris at the Hôpital Lareboisière in 1947. Upon his return to Montreal, he worked at the Notre-Dame Hospital. He founded the Montreal Heart Institute in 1954. It was under his direction that the first heart transplant ever performed in Canada was carried out at the Institute, in 1968.

In 1985, he was appointed to the Canadian Senate on the recommendation of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. He sat as a Progressive Conservative senator representing the Senatorial division of Bedford, Quebec. He retired on his 75th birthday in 1994. His father, Louis-Athanase David and grandfather, Laurent-Olivier David had also been Senators.

In 1968, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Companion in 1981. In 1988, he was named a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec.

He married Yvette Lemire and had six children: Françoise, Pierre, Charles-Philippe, Thérèse, Anne-Marie and Hélène.