John Victor Hurley, the second child and eldest son of Victor and Elsie Hurley, was born three years after the end of the 1914-18 war. His father, Victor, a young surgeon on the staff of then Melbourne Hospital had enlisted in the AIF on the outbreak of war and after serving in Egypt and Gallipoli was posted to London. There he met and in 1919 married Elsie, the youngest child and only daughter of Dr George Crowther the founder and first headmaster of Brighton Grammar School. Elsie had worked in Egypt and in London as a hospital aide with the Australian forces. They returned to Australia in 1919 and their six children were born in the next 11 years. Victor’s father, Thomas Hurley, was also a schoolteacher with a long and distinguished career in the Victorian Education Department. With such grandparents it is not surprising that Victor and Elsie’s six children were all to follow academic careers: Ann Jackson in philosophy, John in academic pathology, David in applied mathematics, Tom in medicine, Andrew in theoretical chemistry and Barbara (Linsten) in university administration.

John was born in Adams Street, South Yarra. In 1930 Victor and Elsie moved to Wyuna in Albany Road where John spent most of his early years. The same year Victor built a cottage at Point Lonsdale where the family enjoyed many holidays together. He played a good game of tennis and also enjoyed golf and until not long before his death, played regularly at Royal Melbourne Golf Club.

He went to school first at Glamorgan and then Melbourne Grammar. There he established a record of academic excellence, which continued throughout his career. He was also a skilful tennis player; he played for his school and was awarded a University
blue for tennis. In 1939 he began his medical course and again his academic record was outstanding. He obtained first class honours in every year and was awarded six exhibitions including pathology in fourth year and surgery in his finals in 1944 when he topped his year.

After a year as a resident medical officer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, then still in Lonsdale Street, he enlisted in the RAAF and served as a medical officer in Australia and North Borneo.

Returning to Melbourne in 1947 he started training as a surgeon, planning a career like Victor’s as surgeon in a teaching hospital. This was frustrated when he developed severe pulmonary tuberculosis which confined him to hospital for three years. Realising a surgical career would now be unwise, he decided to train as an academic pathologist.

His first appointment was assistant to Edgar King (qv 1) then pathologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital now situated in Parkville. King became his mentor and remained a life long friend. King had trained as a surgeon but, like John, had developed pulmonary tuberculosis at the end of the war. This caused him to abandon his career as a surgeon and to return to his former interest in pathology. He became pathologist to The Royal Melbourne Hospital and John’s first appointment was as his assistant. In 1950 on the retirement of Sir Peter MacCallum (qv 1), King was appointed to the Chair of Pathology in the University.

The following year John also moved to the University and became Stewart Lecturer, beginning an association with the Pathology Department, which continued until his retirement in 1986 as Professor and Head of the Department.

In 1959 John was awarded a Nuffield Dominion Fellowship and worked for a year in London with Professor Sir Roy Cameron, a distinguished Melbourne graduate who himself had been Stewart Lecturer in the Melbourne Department in 1925. John married Evelyn Young in 1953 and she and their infant sons Peter and Bill accompanied John to England.

In Cameron’s department John commenced his study of inflammation and tissue repair, which remained the focus of his research throughout his career. This required meticulous histologic study, and on his return to Melbourne, John and his team were the first to employ the newly developed electron microscope in their research. His work culminated in 1972 with the publication of his book Acute inflammation (Churchill Livingstone 1972, 2nd ed 1983). This was the most authorative work on the subject since the pioneering work of Adami in the previous century. John returned to Melbourne in 1960 and was promoted to Reader in 1964.

Following King’s appointment to the Chair in 1950 the department had undergone great change. He had inherited a department stretched by the post war influx of students and depleted of equipment and experienced staff. Over the next ten years King created his ideal department; a place where teaching and research in morbid anatomy flourished side by side with experimental pathology. Young people came in increasing numbers for intellectual stimulus and to use facilities previously unavailable in Australia. King, in his account of those years paid tribute to the role played by George Christie (qv 2) and John Hurley in this achievement.

The growth of the work and reputation of the Department continued under King’s successors George Christie, John Hurley and John’s successor the present Professor Colin Masters. Under their leadership the Department achieved an international reputation for excellence in teaching and research.

Following retirement from his Chair in 1986 John was invited to continue as a visiting lecturer within the Department. He also became a valued advisor to Professor Wayne Morrison’s Department of Surgery at St Vincent’s Hospital. John provided advice in their research and especially in his area of tissue injury and repair in the Microsurgery Unit.

John and Evelyn enjoyed a very happy life together. Their family Peter, Bill, Ian and Sue and their grandchildren were a source of great pride to them both.