Richard Maxwell Gibson was born in Strathfield in New South Wales in 1921, the son of a medical practitioner, Norman Maxwell Gibson, and Dorothea Mary Agnes (nee Burkitt). He was educated at Trinity Grammar School, Summer Hill and the University of Sydney, graduating MB BS in 1944. He won a university blue for swimming.

Richard was a big man, quiet, unassuming and knowledgeable. He was interested in the true role of the physician and had the air of an established consultant when he was in the final stages of preparation for his Membership examination which he passed in 1951. His early medical training was at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Repatriation General Hospital, Concord. In 1952 he was appointed as a staff specialist general physician to Royal Newcastle Hospital, and it was here that he made his career in geriatrics, becoming the director of the geriatric service.

After initiating long-term studies in well babies and sick children, Richard gradually directed his attention to the chronically disabled, particularly the elderly. This was crystallised by his survey of patients suffering from multiple sclerosis in the Hunter Region. He saw the need to bring to the home those services which were traditionally regarded as being hospital based. His was a charismatic presence and he would rapidly gain the confidence of an apprehensive family. He had the active cooperation of family members, of medical social workers, of visiting nurses, of occupational therapists, of physiotherapists and visiting housekeepers - a hospital based physician integrating the management of the patient in the home whilst the family doctor was fully informed and involved. Richard was a practical dreamer and an adept negotiator. He valued the knowledge of his colleagues and of his patients, was aware of human need and he could make ideas work. He saw the general hospital as being a facility of the community. That the survey of multiple sclerosis, done with social worker, Grace Parbury in 1950, should culminate in the Hospital Centred Domiciliary Care Service in 1955 was a natural progression. The Domiciliary Care Scheme provided the experience ("the Newcastle experience") from which developed the Geriatrics Service.

At a time when a generally pessimistic attitude prevailed towards ageing people with chronic disability, he was promoting and demonstrating the importance of accurate diagnosis, good clinical management and planning in a setting which emphasised social circumstances. Far in advance of the times, was his philosophy and practice. He recognised the advantages to patient and carer in trying to improve health and lessen dependence as integral to providing support for them in their own homes.

He propounded three phases of management and treatment: diagnosis, rehabilitation and maintenance. His argument, on both economic and compassionate grounds, convinced the Royal Newcastle Hospital of its responsibility in all phases. Its role in maintenance included the provision of home nursing service and of beds to guarantee re-admission should care at home breakdown for whatever reason. The Hospital provided the resources by which hospital based services and existing community services could be integrated at the regular Domiciliary Care Meeting. So strong was the economic argument, that the Hospital also underwrote the cost of housekeeping services which up till then were provided by the State for short term as a crisis measure, ensuring that they would be continued for as long as needed.

By the year 1957 he had already identified the essential elements of a good service-teamwork in a multidisciplinary team which included the family practitioner, nurses who were both assessors and teachers, equipment service, domestic services, respite service and accountability. He attracted skilled people to work with him, developing the William Lyne Rehabilitation Unit with its dynamic problem-solving approach to disability wherein nurses incorporated the techniques of rehabilitation into the nursing process. He identified risk factors such as death of spouse and urinary incontinence and promoted the use of equipment and services as preventive measures against injury in the home.

In 1965 he described a well-established specialist geriatrics service which was integrated into the general hospital with control of its own beds. It provided a forum for the integration of service, a consultative service to family practitioners, and day care. It took specialist medical, nursing and paramedical services into people's homes, recognising the need for long stay care as a last resort and setting a standard still relevant today. His work gained public recognition in 1965 when the Queen conferred on him the honour of becoming an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. In 1945 he married Alison Ruth Macfarlane. They had three daughters and a son who is a general practitioner. His second marriage was to Bell Adams.