Ron Green was born in Sydney. Due to financial reverses the family moved to Adelaide in the early 1920s. During his schooldays he was noted for his interest in ham radio and conducted his own transmitting station. He completed his schooling in 1927 and won an exhibition for engineering. In the vacation he came to stay with me as I was about to enter the medical faculty and decided he also wanted to do medicine.

He spent the first three years at the University of Adelaide and then transferred to Sydney for the clinical years. The sudden decision to change from engineering to medicine was an example of his strong mindedness in all decision making. His student years were spent at Sydney Hospital. He was always a kindly gentle man, with no great affinity for sporting or social life. This may have been partly financial as the Great Depression was at its depth. However he enjoyed tennis which he played at his uncle's home at Rockdale. His uncle was Dr Fred Jensen, a well known GP, and Ron joined him as an assistant for a period before he moved to Port Kembla in partnership with Dr Luscombe, at that time the only medical practitioner in the town.

The outbreak of war in 1939 caused a sudden expansion in the industrial area and the practice was overloaded. Ron once told me he had carried out a cholecystectomy under guidance by his very able partner and that at the end of the operation he was in much worse shape than the patient! Surgery did not appeal to him, and at the end of the war when manpower restrictions ceased he returned to Sydney for further training in pathology and medicine. He was a firm believer in the need to be well grounded in pathology as part of the calling of a physician. He was fellow in pathology at RPAH in 1945. Admission to Membership of The Royal Australasian College of Physicians followed in 1946.

Shortly afterwards, in conjunction with Thomas F Rose, a fellow graduate who had qualified as a specialist surgeon, he commenced a group practice at Bondi Junction. The practice flourished and he worked with the group until his death of a coronary occlusion. During the period in general practice he kept up his interest in specialist medicine with appointments as junior physician at Royal South Sydney Hospital and as clinical assistant and relieving tutor in medicine at the Royal North Shore Hospital.

Ron had an enthusiasm for whatever activity attracted him and this, along with a friendly laughing nature, gave him a host of friends - and one never heard of enemies. He was happily married with four children and a devout faith which led him to embrace the Roman Catholic religion not long after he had graduated. Ron Green may not have achieved professional eminence but his graduation year thought so much of him that he was chosen to be the speaker at the thirtieth reunion dinner. His patients revered him for the ethical, kindly and knowledgeable man that he was. His colleagues valued him for his opinions. His family loved him.