Dr. Walley J. Temple was a Professor with the Departments of Oncology and Surgery with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary and the Tom Baker Cancer Centre. He retired from clinical practice in 2019 and is now appointed Professor Emeritus in Oncology.
He received his MD degree from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, did a General Surgery Residency in Winnipeg at the University of Manitoba, Canada and completed his surgical oncology training at the Department of Surgery, School of Medicine at the University of Miami, Florida. He was an American Cancer Society Surgical Oncology Fellow and American Cancer Society Junior Faculty Fellow.
Dr. Temple is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and of the American College of Surgeons. He moved to Calgary in 1983 to initiate surgical oncology development at the University of Calgary and the Tom Baker Cancer Centre and served as Chief of Surgical Oncology from 1983-2012. He was the clinical director of Cancer Surgery Alberta for many years. From 1986 to 1992 he was Chief of the Division of General Surgery and Director of the General Surgery Residency Training Program for the Department of Surgery. He was the James IV Association of Surgeons’ James IV Surgical Traveler in 1987, and past Presidents of the Calgary Society of Surgeons, the Canadian Society of Surgical Oncology, the World Federation of Surgical Oncology Society, and the Society of Pelvic Surgeons. He received the University of Calgary Students’ Union Teaching Excellence Award 1992. During the period of 1994 to 1998 he was involved in the University of Calgary’s International Development Program in Nepal for the MDGP Project. From 1994 to 2000 he was Chair of the Medical Skills Program with the Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Temple received a Diploma of Visiting Professor Emeritus Medical Faculty University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, 2002. He was awarded a University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine Smith Distinguished Achievement Award for 2005. He was the Director of the Surgical Oncology Residency Training Program until September 2006.
In 2011 he received a distinguished Service Award for the Department of Surgery . He was the Principal Investigator for the CPAC Surgical Synoptic Reporting Trials Project 2007– 2012 and the PI for the Canada Health Infoway Innovation project in Alberta for integrating the patient experience in the clinical management of the cancer patient.
His bibliography includes over 150 publications including journal articles and book chapters. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Surgical Oncology and Seminars in Surgical Oncology for 12 years. His research interests included sarcoma, breast cancer, multidisciplinary management of advanced GI malignancy exploring the value of HIPEC for peritoneal malignancies, knowledge transfer using Synoptic Technology, helping physicians deal with adverse events and integrating PROS into everyday practice.
He retired from clinical practice in 2018. He continues to be active in global medicine and currently leads a 2 year Rotary funded cervical cancer screening and treatment project for 5000 women in rural Guatemala .
His personal pursuits include volunteering with Rotary, hiking, camping, horseback riding. Especially, and most importantly, he values family time with his partner, 4 children and 9 grandchildren.
