The Globe and Mail Lisa Fitterman Published February 15, 2021 Courtesy of the Family When Thomas Dignan was in Grade 8, his teacher told his parents he would not amount to much and recommended he attend a trade school. Growing up on Hamilton’s working-class, rough-and-tumble east side, Dr. Dignan, a Mohawk with roots in Six Nations of the Grand River territory, spent the rest of his life proving that teacher wrong. He was not an indifferent student, not a bit. Rather, he had dyslexia and once the problem was diagnosed, his ambition, energy and interests eventually led him to become a nurse, then a nursing instructor, then the first Indigenous person to graduate from McMaster University’s medical school, then a licensed pilot who pursued his practice by flying his own plane to remote communities in northern Ontario.