[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Bar-Or,-Oded.jpg” caption=”Oded Bar-Or”]Funeral services were held today for Oded Bar-Or, professor emeritus of pediatrics, who passed away on Thursday, Dec. 8 due to cancer.

Bar-Or made significant contributions in the field of sports medicine for nearly four decades. He was a graduate of Hadassah medical school in Jerusalem, with postgraduate work at Penn State University in the U.S. before joining McMaster in 1981. He was the founder and director of the Children's Exercise and Nutrition Centre located at Chedoke Hospital from its inception in 1983 to its current status as an international training centre for researchers.

Bar-Or retired from McMaster as a professor in 2003.

He was a visionary when he initially turned his attention to overweight children, as few shared his concern for the rising epidemic. He developed a multi-disciplinary team of researchers who created and delivered individual nutrition and physical activity programs for children. As well, he spearheaded many research projects studying obesity in childhood and how to combat its growing prevalence.

“He was one of the most respected scientists in our field,” said colleague Joe Blimkie, professor and director of the graduate program in kinesiology. “He was well known anywhere I travelled, he just commanded that much respect internationally. Many of us wouldn't be where we are in our own academic fields if it was for his efforts and his support of our development, and I'm very grateful.”

Bar-Or received a host of special honours including, most recently, honorary degrees from the Jozef Pilsudski Academy of Physical Education in Warsaw, Poland, and Brock University in St. Catharines; the 2005 Honour Award from the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology; the Thomas E. Shaffer Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP); and the naming of an Oded Bar-Or Award to be presented annually by the AAP.

He leaves his wife Marilyn and children Amit, Yuval and Tali.