It was lucky for Australia that Herb Copeman managed to survive his perilous job as a Typhoon fighter-bomber pilot during the last phase of World War II, following the Allied D-day landings.

He went on to become a physician, medical researcher and teacher in Queensland and Perth, contributing to the understanding of heart disease, endocrinology and obesity treatment, among other fields, as well as inspiring a generation of young doctors.

The third of five children of Arthur and Ellen Copeman, both country school teachers in Queensland, he grew up in rural communities in the Depression. A scholarship enabled him to finish his school years at Toowoomba Grammar School, and he was set to enrol at the University of Queensland on another scholarship before joining the Royal Australian Air Force in 1942. After learning to fly in New South Wales, he was posted to the Royal Air Force in England in 1943, where he trained on the rocket-firing Typhoons. He had a baptism of fire, entering combat with the D-day Allied offensive in 1944, and eventually completed 96 sorties against enemy ground targets in western Europe. Despite many hits from anti-aircraft fire and several crash landings, he was one of the few Typhoon pilots to survive the war.

On returning to Brisbane, he studied medicine at the University of Queensland. In 1946, he met his future wife, Peggy Hill, who had worked in decoding intelligence in the Women's Army Corps in Brisbane during the war, and they married the next year. Dr Copeman toyed with the idea of becoming a country GP, but was persuaded by his mentors to become a specialist physician. He was appointed as a visiting physician at Royal Brisbane Hospital and established a private practice on Wickham Terrace. During that period, he and Peggy raised four children; Dick, Ann, Peter and Andy.

He developed a research interest in endocrinology and heart disease, and served as secretary of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in Queensland, and as an Australian Medical Association council member. He was also president of the Marriage Guidance Council of Queensland. After the family home on the banks of the Brisbane River was flooded in 1974, the family moved to Western Australia where Dr Copeman was director of postgraduate medical education and reader in medicine at Royal Perth Hospital. He concentrated on teaching and research into hormones and atheroma, the treatment of obesity, postgraduate medical education and the history of endocrinology.

Sadly, Peggy was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at that time and gradually deteriorated during the next 25 years, despite her husband's loving care. After he retired in 1988, the couple moved to Albany in southern Western Australia, where Dr Copeman enjoyed the country lifestyle. But he continued in part-time medical practice in Albany for a further four years, and served as chair of the board of the student hostel and member of the regional health authority board.

A year after Peggy's death in 1999, he married Noela Heyward, one of her old friends, and they moved to Hobart. In 2003, Dr Copeman was one of 27 ex-servicemen and women selected to represent Australia at the opening of the Commonwealth War Memorial in London.

He loved travelling with Noela and kept up a range of hobbies, but sadly he developed dementia in his final years. For much of his life, Dr Copeman kept family and friends on their toes with his lively mind, and love of a good discussion. Of his many admirable attributes, those were perhaps the ones for which he was most fondly remembered by his friends and colleagues.

Dr Copeman is survived by Noela and her family, his four children, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.