High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Wilder Graves Penfield, OM, CC, CMG, FRS (January 26, 1891 – April 5, 1976) was an American born Canadian neurosurgeon. During his life he was called "the greatest living Canadian". He devoted much thinking to the functionings of the mind, and continued until his death to contemplate whether there was any scientific basis for the existence of the human soul.