Donald Hood
Doctor Donald Charles Hood (born circa 1944) is a retired American-born audiologist and philanthropist who pioneered the private provision of hearing aids in Canada and in developing countries. He founded and ran Thunder Bay Audiology from 1978 until its sale to Connect Hearing in 2005. He ran Caribbean Hearing Limited to deliver hearing aids to the less fortunate, making dozens of trips until 2021. As of 2025 he is retired and living outside Halifax.
Early life
Donald Hood was born and raised in America and attended Northwestern University. Article [8] from 1973 gives his middle initial as "G", but other sources, such as [9], give his middle name as Charles.
- He earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1965 from Montclair State College in New Jersey. [9]
- He earned a Master of Science in 1967 from Washington University in St. Louis. [9]
- He earned his Doctor of Philosophy in 1971 from Northwestern University, located in Evanston, Illinois. [9]
Other Donalds Hood
Our Dr. Donald Hood should not be confused with these five or six doppelgängers:
- British Surgeon Dr. Donald William Charles Hood (1848 - 1924), who in 1910 promoted the erroneous theory that appendicitis was infectious. [1]
- Dr. Donald Wilbur Hood (1918 - 2002), who graduated from Texas A&M University with a PhD in Chemistry in 1950 and who in the 1960s was director of the University of Alaska's Institute of Marine Science. He was also a religious leader, a Reverend, affiliated with the NAE in 1962 and an associate of Reverend Dr. Billy Graham [2]
- Dr. Donald Charles Hood (born 1942), a quite famous and distinguished doctor in the opposite field: Ophthalmology; that Dr. Hood has been at Columbia University since 1969.
- Veterinarian Dr. Donald Hood of Taree Veterinary Hospital, New South Wales, Australia. [10]
- Post-Doctoral Geologist Dr. Donald Ramsey Hood (born circa 1990), of Baylor University. [3]
- Dr. Donald Hood (circa 1945 - ?) LSUNO member circa 1970. (This person has only one attestation and there is no other record of his existence)
Other notable Donalds Hood who did not have a doctorate:
- Professional baseball player Donald Harris Hood (1949 - 2023)
- Optometrist Don Hood (1946 - 2013) of Denver, Colorado.
- Millionaire Saskatchewan businessman Donald L. Hood (1905 - 1954), who died in a plane crash. He also founded the "Hudson Bay Post" in 1946.
- Abilene Christian University track and field head coach Donald Wade Hood (1933 - 2024) [4]
Career
Dr Hood was an audiologist by profession, one of a wave of foreign-trained professionals who filled the ranks of Canadian hospitals during the 20 years between when the profession was founded in the 1960s and when Canadian universities finally started graduating domestically-educated professionals. [6]
“…exactly what is this (a)morphous identity we call a Canadian Audiologist?” Donald Hood asked. Then he said “Our European and U.S. counterparts have just a few years on most of us and are our professional parents…”
- Hood, Donald (1989) Guest Editorial. JSLPA. (HCC). 13. 4. December
He initially worked for the government health care system in Ontario, starting in 1970. He worked at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He was Head of the Division of Audiology in 1973. During this time he resided at 55 Valentine Drive, Don Mills. [9]
He left this position in August, 1978, around the same time that his 1977-1978 term as President of The Canadian Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists (CASLPA) expired.
In 1978 he incorporated Thunder Bay Audiology Limited, which was branded as Thunder Bay Audiology, and located in Suite 200, above King's Stereo in Fort William, at 135 Syndicate Avenue North, with phone number +1 807 623 0322.
Corporate information [5]
- THUNDER BAY AUDIOLOGY LIMITED
- Company Number 376375
- Status Inactive
- Incorporation Date 9 March 1978
- Dissolution Date 1 April 2007
- Company Type: Ontario Business Corporation
- Jurisdiction: Ontario (Canada)
- Registered Address: Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
From at least February 2001 to February 2005, the business had the following key staff:
- Audiologists: Dr. Donald Hood and Daniela Kralovec
- Hearing Instrument Practitioner: Silvia Martin
- Hearing Aid Repair Technician: Pirkko Turmaine
- Webmaster: Leslie Publicover
- Manager / Office Manager / "Second-In-Command": Cathy Hunt
The building Dr. Hood rented his office from the Twin City Gas Building, was popularly known as the King's Stereo Building after Howard King's famous stereo store. The building stood from the 1950s until 24 May 2010, when it was demolished. [6] The site is now part of the new Thunder Bay Courthouse constructed in 2014 and designed by Adamson Associates Architects. [7]
Dr Hood sold Thunder Bay Audiology Limited in 2005, likely to "Connect Hearing", an American franchise of Audiology Clinics founded in 1979. The domain `hearwellnow.com` was Thunder Bay Audiology's website from 2001 until about 2006, when it redirected to `www.connecthearing.ca`, which is likely the buyer of Dr. Hood's practice. This appears to have placed Dr. Hood's practice in the vanguard at both the beginning and end of his career:
- From 1970-1978 he worked at a large government-run hospital, which was normal for employed audiologists (similar to surgeons) and
- In 1978, he quit and pioneered the sale of hearing aids by privately-run audiology clinics owned and operating by audiologists (run similar to dentists) rather than as they were previously done, at hospitals.
- Then in 2006, at the end of his career he was swept up in a wave of consolidation where most independently-run audiology clinics got bought out by large chains like Connect Hearing, which have since de-emphasized the individual audiologist, (like optometrists at eyeglass stores) turning them into something akin to technicians who conduct hearing tests rather than prestigious academic researchers who push the boundaries of audiology research while also helping clients.
So it seems he got in (1978) and got out (2006) at just the right time.
Two years later, in 2008, Connect Hearing was itself acquired, by Sonova Group, a Swiss publicly-traded hearing aid company with a market cap of $20 billion and a global market share of 25%.
After the Twin City Gas Building was demolished, Connect Hearing moved their Thunder Bay branch to 1186 Memorial Avenue (at the corner of John and Memorial), in a standalone building in the parking lot of the Shoppers' Drug Mart. It is branded as "Expert Hearing" rather than Connect Hearing for some reason. [8]
Fate of Staff:
- Cathy Hunt seems to have moved to Connect Hearing's "Stratford Audiology Clinic" branch. [9]
- As of 2008, Daniela Kralovec was practising audiology in Gardenia, California, at 879 W 190th St - Pacific Pointe as "Dr. Daniela Kralovec Love" which indicates that either she married someone called Mr. Love or else she simplified her last name "Kralovec", which already contains the word "Love". [10] This location houses yet another instance of the "Connect Hearing" franchise which does not advertise the audiologist names on their staff. However, her license has not been updated since then and she does not appear on any websites, so it's likely she retired around 2008.
Volunteer Work
Dr. Hood also sold hearing aids abroad. This began in the 1970s, as part of a charity program in the Caribbean. The first trip was around 1976, to St. Vincent, and then to Trinidad and Tobago, from 1982.
Success
Dear Sir:
Once again, I want to report to your readers on the success of the Caribbean Hearing Aid Programme co-ordinated by the Ontario Ministry of Education.
During 1977, Dr. Donald Hood, Audiologist, and Mrs. Hood, a Speech Therapist, visited St. Vincent in the West Indies where they did follow-up work on children previously fitted with hearing aids; conducted tests and fitted aids for other deaf children.
At this time, 65 children have been fitted with hearing aids donated to this programme by Canadians from coast to coast. And, like all successful ongoing and voluntary programmes we are again in need of discarded hearing aids.
Anyone with a hearing aid, in any condition, is invited to support this small but productive effort to help the deaf children in St. Vincent.
Hearing aids may be mailed to:
Project Hearing Aids, Student Activities Branch, Ministry of Education, Ontario, 19th Floor, Mowat Block, Queen's Park, Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario M7A 1L2
On behalf of the deaf children who have already benefitted from this programme, and those who have yet to enjoy the world of sound, I thank your readers for their warm response to my previous appeals.
George J. Mason, Co-ordinator, Student Activities and Special Projects Branch
Eventually this initiative became a business as well as a charity. In 2005 Dr. Hood incorporated it as Caribbean Hearing Limited. He made "countless trips" [1] to many Caribbean countries while he had that business, until he sold it to a colleague in 2021. The full list of countries visited is:
- 8 Caribbean Countries (St. Vincent, Antigua, St. Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, Dominica, St. Lucia, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago)
- Chile
- India
He also sailed in his 29-foot sailboat, In the Mood, until he lost it during Hurricane Fiona in 2022. He sold the wreck to his neighbour who has since repaired it.
Oddly, this boat name is not attested in the Transport Canada registry, except to a similar vessel from Vancouver. [11]
Personal Life
He met a St. Louis woman, Nancy Greenwald [12], possibly at Washington University, and in 1970 they moved to Toronto after Dr. Hood was hired to work at the Hospital for Sick Children.
In 1978, seeking a quiet place to raise a family (and with a lower cost of living), they sold their Toronto house and moved to Thunder Bay, in Canada. From 1978 to 1992 he lived at 67 South Hill Street and had two children:
- Arleigh Hood (born 2 August, circa 1978) [13]. Since at least 2014 until at least 2024 she has lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
- Jeremy Hood (born circa 1980), married to Jaclyn Haber in 2007 with two children born soon afterward [14]. Since at least 2014 until at least 2024 he has lived in Woodbridge, Ontario.
Dr. Hood gave or sold Michael's father Ron Currie his first home computer as a hand-me-down, in about 1988, which had a 20-megabyte hard drive. Michael's habit of playing with the computer and causing problems led to Dr. Hood coining the phrase "Pulling a Michael", which meant: unintentionally causing an unrecoverable error through curious use of the computer.
In about 1992, the Hoods separated and Dr. Hood moved to Parkview Place Apartments at 790 Arundel Street. It was here that Michael Currie played the Dark Seed video game with Jeremy, which initiated Jeremy's "Goth" phase.
Sometime in the mid- to late-1990s, Dr. Hood remarried to Joan M. and moved to Halifax. He is stepfather to Joan's sons. His second wife's sons now have children of their own as of at least 2019. Since at least 2001, he and his wife live on the coast at 9669 Peggy's Cove Road, in Hackett's Cove, Nova Scotia. [15].
In July 2001 Michael Currie had dinner with Dr. Hood and his wife Joan and son Jeremy, at their home in Halifax.
Sources
[1] Interview by Michael Currie in July 2001 [16]
[2] Opendi [17]
[3] Varia: "Canadian Speech and Hearing Association, April 21-24, 1976. The Annual Convention hosted in Halifax, Nova Scotia by The Atlantic Provinces Speech and Hearing Association. Speakers will include: Dean E. Williams, Martha Taylor Sarno, Norma Rees, Louise Getty, Joel Stark, Mark Ross, Donald Hood, Agnes Ling, and David Yoder. The conference will feature a call for convention papers and a special lecture by Eric Lenneberg. For further information, please contact Wendy McPhee, 78 Stewart Harris Drive, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia (Canada)." [18]
[4] History of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology in Canada: Our First Fifty Years, by Virginia Martin, 2011. “…exactly what is this (a)morphous identity we call a Canadian Audiologist?” Donald Hood asked. Then he said “Our European and U.S. counterparts have just a few years on most of us and are our professional parents…” quoted from Roberts, Margaret; Donald Hood. (1989) Guest Editorial JSLPA. 13.4. December 4 This issue also has recollections and history information. [19]
[5] hearwellnow.com, Wayback Machine [20]
Association Presidents: 1977-1978 Donald C. Hood (ON)
ARTICLE 1: Hood, Donald and Peter B. Mueller [misspelled in the article as "Meuller"? (Also spelled in the article as "Mueller"!) based on his obituary spelling as "Mueller"]. (1973) The hospital for sick children, Toronto. Human Communication Number 2, Autumn
ARTICLE 2: Roberts, Margaret; Donald Hood. (1989) Guest Editorial JSLPA. 13.4. December 4 This issue also has recollections and history information.
(For article 2, the guest editorial is not present in the archive here https://www.cjslpa.ca/ which seems to exclude it (probably it was at the beginning (pages 1-4))
[7] (A training video for audiologists) Doctor, does my child hear? 1975 https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-7603998A-vid http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/7603998A
Contributor(s): Mitchell, David P. Hood, Donald. Platt, L. Jay. University of Toronto. Faculty of Medicine. Division of Instructional Media Services. Publication: Toronto : The Division, 1975
[8] Full article: https://www.cjslpa.ca/files/1973_HumComm_Vol_01/No_02_2-92/Hood_Mueller_HumComm_1973_News.pdf
Hood's German-born 1973 co-author, Peter B. Mueller, became a professor at Kent State University and died in 2014. [21]
[9] Human Communication, Autumn 1973
[10] Taree Veterinary Hospital website [22]
"Donald graduated from Glascow University in 1985, and worked all around the United Kingdom in both large and small animal practice before migrating to Australia 27 years ago. Don became a partner 20 years ago at Taree Veterinary Hospital. He has a keen interest in all areas of mixed practice with a particular interest in small animal medicine and surgery. He also enjoys diagnostic ultrasound, radiology and pathology. In his spare time Don enjoys playing soccer, gardening and is recently a new author."
[11] 1991-08-19 speech https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/committees/social-development/parliament-35/transcript/committee-transcript-1991-aug-19
He was speaking against (or in favour? not sure) of the Regulated Health Professions Act, which was passed by the Rae government in Fall 1991. https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/91r18 https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/91a19
DONALD HOOD
The Chair: The standing committee on social development is now in session. I would like to call Donald Hood. You have 10 minutes for your presentation. We would ask you to leave a few minutes for questions from the committee.
Mr Hood: I am Donald Hood. I am here speaking as an individual, though I am a professional in the field of audiology in northwestern Ontario. I am actually wearing two hats today. One of them is as a private practitioner in the field of audiology in Thunder Bay, and I have been here for 13 years. I chose to come to this underserviced area of the province on my own, I might add, at no cost whatsoever to the Ministry of Health or the taxpayers of this province.
The second hat I am wearing is as a co-founder of the Canadian International Hearing Services, which is a federally registered charitable non-profit organization that helps developing nations of the world establish viable, effective, efficient hearing health care services. We have been doing that since 1976, so that is 15 years. We work in an ongoing way in about 20 nations. In fact -- I apologize for my slightly slurred speech -- I just got off the plane from India, doing the same thing over there. My apologies in advance if I seem to lapse a bit in my 10-minute time period.
I wanted to address the issue of perhaps missing the forest when you are looking at the trees, with respect particularly to the issue of diagnosis and prescription. In the field of audiology this relates to informing the patient, obviously, about the results of the testing and then prescribing an appropriate course of remediation that is non-medical and non-surgical.
Also, I would like to touch briefly on our definition of "risk of harm," which I know this committee has dealt with probably in great depth. In the field of audiology, I jokingly say, there is no such thing as an emergency hearing test, which is one of the reasons I chose this field. I do not get called at 2 o'clock in the morning to come in to do a hearing test. We are not concerned with life-and-death matters. We are not concerned with loss of limbs. We are not concerned with matters like that.
But we are concerned with harm that can arise out of inappropriate management, inappropriate diagnosis of hearing impairment in the area of physical harm, where a person may in fact be inappropriately fitted with something like a hearing aid or an assistive listening device -- something other than a hearing aid -- or where the hearing aid may be too powerful and in fact cause additional hearing loss.
Then there is the area of psychological harm: If a person is fitted inappropriately he may become more depressed. He may in fact turn other people, who can benefit from a hearing aid, off seeking help because of the misfitting.
Social harm: Inappropriately fitted means they will not be able to integrate as well into society if they have not been counselled appropriately and fitted appropriately with a hearing aid or assistive device.
Vocational harm: If they are inappropriately fitted with a hearing aid they may in fact not fit back into the workplace adequately or as effectively as they might if they had been treated and handled adequately.
Again, we are not really talking about life-or-death matters, but quality-of-life matters, and there is a continuum of quality of life. As in any health care field, when care is provided, that care provides little or no help or a great deal of help, so there is this continuum of improving the quality of life. Our objective, as health care professionals, and for me specifically in audiology, is to move the person as far as I can along that quality of life continuum, so that we do not cause physical, psychological, social or vocational harm.
I think we can best achieve this by dealing with hearing health care, as I advise other nations to deal with hearing health care, in a holistic way, by dealing with the four factors of health care. These are not new to you either: identification, assessment or diagnosis, management -- or, in this case, prescription -- and prevention in education. Those are the four topics we deal with internationally, and they address virtually all aspects of hearing health care and other kinds of health care as well -- identification, diagnosis, prescription in this case, and prevention in education.
As with the quality-of-life continuum, dealing with these four factors is also on a continuum; each one must be addressed by the professional with four things in mind or four bits of knowledge. One is the depth of current knowledge. The second is an understanding and availability of the latest technology. The field of audiology is very young. We grew out of the Second World War. About the time I was born, audiology was born. Third, we need good communication skills to convey information to the patient, and you can only do that if you have a good background of knowledge, the number one issue that I referred to.
Fourth, you need appropriate motivation. That is to say, a person should choose to be in a caring profession to deal with all aspect of hearing loss, all those aspects I mentioned just a few moments ago, and not with the main reason of making a living from the sale of hearing aids.
When the diagnosis and prescription process is approached in this holistic way -- that is, dealing with all four of those topics: identification, diagnosis, prescription or management, and prevention in education -- the government of Ontario will have attacked the problem of hearing loss with the best quality-of-life bang for the taxpayers' bucks. More appropriately prescribed hearing aids, funded in large part, as you know, through the Ministry of Health assistive devices program, would be worn more often rather than left in dresser drawers. Ladies and gentlemen, there is no such thing as a hard-of-hearing drawer, but that is where they end up. Thank you for your attention this morning; I will be pleased to answer any questions you might have related to this area.
Mr Owens: The hearing aid dispensers have argued that if the legislation goes through as proposed, access to service, especially in the north, is going to be limited, which is going to result, I guess, in a duplication of billing to OHIP, having to refer south or to the nearest audiologist. Is that the case?
Mr Hood: This committee has already been presented with information in the brief from the Ontario Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists: statistics showing very clearly from the assistive devices program, from the Department of Veterans Affairs and from the Workers' Compensation Board that in fact, in underserviced areas of this province, audiology services are more accessible to the public than they are in urban areas. You can get in to see an audiologist more quickly in northwestern Ontario than you can in Toronto, due in part to the fact that people like myself have chosen to come here, and because we feel we provide in this area, a more efficient and effective service in audiology than perhaps in Toronto. That is my own personal opinion. But to answer your question, accessibility is very much better in the north than in the Toronto area.
Mrs McLeod: We are running out of time and, in any event, Don, I am not sure that I want to draw you into an area which you did not address in your presentation, although it is one we have talked about, and that is the question of the use of the doctoral term for PhD-trained people in the health field. It may be something you do not want to pursue today.
Mr Hood: After thinking about the issues and discussing this with my colleagues in Toronto, I felt that this particular issue of the holistic approach, of dealing with hearing impairment, was more critical than dealing with the doctoral issue, although that is an equally important one.
The Chair: Thank you very much for your presentation before the committee. If there is anything further at any time, please feel free to communicate with us in writing.
[12] https://www.sac-oac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Web-SAC-OAC_Annual-Report_EN_Single-pages.pdf
"I joined Speech-Language and Audiology Canada (SAC) in 1977, the same year that the federal government designated our association — known then as the Canadian Speech and Hearing Association (CSHA) — as the lead contact agency in Canada for all information related to speech and hearing. Our president at the time, Donald C. Hood, worked tirelessly to build relationships between our association and the Canadian government and other like-minded organizations such as the Canadian Medical Association. His efforts paid off; I believe that Hood’s vision and direction left a positive mark on our association that is in some ways still visible today, particularly in terms of his focus on building connections and promoting the professions." - Judy Meintzer, MSLP, R.SLP, S-LP(C), President, Speech-Language & Audiology Canada (2013)