Tom Pashby

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Thomas Joseph Pashby C.M., MD (March 23, 1915 – August 24, 2005) was an ophthalmologist and advocate of safety in ice hockey in Canada.

Pashby helped push the use of safety equipment for hockey players including mandatory helmets and face guards. He also led the push for penalties for cross checking and other actions that could lead to back or eye injuries.

Born to a butcher family in east-end Toronto, Pashby graduated from the University of Toronto medical school in 1940. He delayed his medical career by serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. After the war, Pashby set-up a practice in Leaside, Ontario in 1941.

Pashby was consulting doctor to the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team and chair of the Canadian Standards Association (or CSA) from 1975 to 1995. During his chairmanship of the CSA, he led the fight for better protection and penalties for excessive roughness in all levels of hockey. In 1981, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada. Pashby was inducted in the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 2000.

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