Maurice Deck was the eldest son of a prominent Sydney dentist, Dr Ernest Deck, and of Ida Deck (nee Rayment). With his four brothers and his sister, Maurice was brought up at Clifton Gardens, Sydney. The Decks as a family were active Christians - and, in fact, two of Maurice's uncles and five of his aunts were missionaries. After attending Sydney Grammar School, Maurice studied medicine at the University of Sydney.

Threads which were to run through the whole of his life were his religion, his friendships, and his love of sailing. While an undergraduate he managed to combine these, when he and Paul White ran a Sunday School on Balmoral Beach. Throughout his medical course, his boon companions were Paul White and Neville Babbage; and his teacher Harold Ritchie dubbed the trio `The three musketeers'. All three were active members of the Evangelical Union.

After holding resident posts at Sydney Hospital, the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children and the Royal Hospital for Women, Maurice went into general practice at Bowraville on the North Coast of NSW. Here he worked for over four years as the town's only doctor, filling the roles of physician, surgeon and obstetrician. He then moved to Sydney, and after gaining his MRACP in 1942, he worked for a period in general practice at Roseville, in the northern suburbs of Sydney.

After being appointed honorary assistant physician at Sydney Hospital in 1949, he took rooms in Macquarie Street, Sydney, and practised as a consulting physician. Life's prospects seemed good: he enjoyed a happy family life with his wife and five children; he loved to relax on his boat with his family and friends; he maintained his friendships and his connection with the church; and his professional work developed successfully.

But after only a few short busy years, Maurice was stricken with an illness which was to prove fatal. He died in Sydney Hospital on 12 November 1956. Each year Sydney Hospital has remembered the loss of two promising young physicians, Charles Hudson and Maurice Deck, at the Sydney Hospitallers' annual refresher week. And on one occasion Maurice's only son, Michael - professor of neuroradiology at Cornell Medical School, New York - was able to deliver the annual Hudson-Deck Memorial Oration.