Peter Black was born and raised in Auckland, the son of two doctors, Harry Black FRACP, dermatologist, and Ruth Black, general practitioner and pioneer of family planning in New Zealand. He had a younger brother, Michael. After a Sunday ward round, Peter died suddenly at home in Auckland from a cardiac arrhythmia. At his side were his wife, Bernadette Salmon FRACP, paediatrician (married 1989), and daughter, Claire (born 1993).

Always a formidable intellect, Peter enrolled in medicine at the age of 16 at the University of Auckland following secondary education at Auckland Grammar School. He completed his MBChB in 1980 and his FRACP in 1985. The same year his academic talents were recognised through the awarding of a Medical Research Council Overseas Research Fellowship. Peter spent the next three years in the Department of Clinical Pharmacology, The Hammersmith Hospital in London, under the mentorship of Professor Sir Colin Dollery, a founder of the discipline of clinical pharmacology. This period in London was seminal for Peter and sparked his long standing interest in clinical pharmacology in general and respiratory pharmacology specifically. His subsequent academic career was built upon these two strands, a path that led eventually to his appointment as the Chair of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Auckland in 2008. It was also during his time in London that Peter met his future wife, Bernadette, who was training to be a paediatrician.

On returning to New Zealand in 1990, Peter was appointed Tutor Specialist, then Consultant General Physician at Auckland City Hospital, and Senior Lecturer, then Associate Professor in Medicine, University of Auckland. He continued to champion general medicine at a time when the pressures for increasing sub-specialisation made this a difficult furrow to plough. Peter was a serious thinker and a dedicated clinician, but also had a keen sense of humour. All those who knew him admired his energy, integrity and frankness, and particularly his medical and general knowledge. A consummate diagnostician, he loved nothing better than to debate diagnoses and patient management, and was increasingly interested in clinical reasoning and how to teach it. His patients, many of whom he had cared for over many years, greatly respected and enjoyed his clinical approach.

To his trainees and students, Peter was an admired mentor, and 'walked the walk' of clinical excellence. He had high expectations of all of them, only exceeded by the standards he set for himself. For all his mentees, particularly women balancing career and family commitments, he was a staunch advocate, providing advice and support on their paths to senior positions. His contributions were recognised formally through several best lecturer awards from the medical students, and a posthumous Trainee Mentorship award from the RACP trainees.

Peter’s research career was unusual in its breadth and depth, covering the complete spectrum from basic research, through to translational and clinical research in its many forms, including Cochrane database analysis and investigator-initiated clinical trials. The research questions he addressed were pivotal, especially in the pathophysiology and management of airways diseases. Latter epidemiological studies in which he was involved aimed to answer critical questions on the role of diet, bacteria and vitamin D in the incidence of asthma which is particularly prevalent in New Zealand.

With over 90 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters to his credit, some of the most significant include the trials of macrolides in asthma (Am J Respir Crit Care Med, 2001, N Engl J Med, 2006) and the Cochrane Review, 'Mucolytic agents for chronic bronchitis or COPD' (Cochrane Airways Group, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2, 2010.)

With a major interest in the quality and safe use of medicines, Peter delivered an integrated teaching theme of clinical pharmacology, prescribing and therapeutics in the medical programme, and complemented this with leadership of local and national strategies to improve prescribing. Students and colleagues alike benefited from his excellent teaching, as well as from individualised feedback. He had been Chair of the Auckland Hospital Medicines Committee since 1994, and sat on a range of national committees including the Ministry of Health Medicines Assessment Advisory Committee and the Health Research Council’s Standing Committee on Therapeutic Trials.

At the time of his death, Peter was a member of the RACP in Clinical Pharmacology, and Director of Advanced Training, Auckland region - a unique role he developed to improve coordination of training pathways, especially for those dual training in general medicine and a subspecialty. He served as Chair of the New Zealand Specialist Advisory Committee in General Medicine from 1996 to 2000, a Director of Physician Training, a member of the RACP Therapeutics Advisory Committee, and as an FRACP Part 1 clinical examiner. He remained an active member of Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, Internal Medicine Society of Australia and New Zealand, Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimantal Pharmacologists and Toxicologists, Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy and other respiratory societies.

Outside medicine, Peter enjoyed family activities and travel. In recent years, he had enjoyed more time at the family bach in the Coromandel. Tributes to Peter have flowed from around the world, and hundreds gathered to honour him at a memorial service at Auckland University’s Maclaurin Chapel. The premature loss of such a talented and productive clinical academic is keenly felt by his colleagues and students in the university and health systems, his patients and the wider community.