David Arthur Henderson was born in Gympie, Queensland, the second son of Arthur Henderson, stockbroker, and Daphne Henderson(nee Ryan). His elder brother was Peter William and his younger brother Robert Andrew. He married Kathleen May Park, a nurse, on the 6th June 1953. Their three children were David Andrew, CEO of Uniquest, and Richard John and Margaret Jane, both medical practitioners.

In 1932 his family moved to Brisbane, where he was taught at The Ascot State School and The Brisbane Grammar School. He left aged 16 with one of the few open scholarships to the University of Queensland.

In 1938, he started a medical course. He was active in student affairs. In 1942 he became editor of the medical students' publication, Trephine. Graduating from a shortened war course in May 1943, David served the obligatory year as a medical officer in the Brisbane General hospital before joining the A.I.F. After serving in Australia he was sent in August 1945 to Bougainville, however the atomic bombs hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki while he was at sea. He volunteered for the occupation of Japan and served there until his discharge from the army in 1947. He then began to train as a physician. He was a medical registrar at Royal Brisbane Hospital from 1947 until November 1949 when he resigned preparatory to leaving for England for post-graduate study. He gained his Membership and returned to become Junior Visiting Physician to the Royal Brisbane Hospital in 1951. He was Senior Visiting Physician from 1958 to 1981, Senior Physician to the Brisbane Women’s Hospital 1958 to 1968, Coordinator of Clinical Studies to Royal Brisbane Hospital 1968-1973 and a member of numerous hospital committees. He was Chief Medical Officer to the AMP in Queensland for some 20 years. He was also in private practice from 1951 until 1983.

David made great contributions to the profession. He had a passionate desire to teach the art and science of medicine. Education at all levels played a central part in his life. An important part of his daily task in the wards was to teach and encourage medical students, residents, registrars and nurses. He was a thorough and patient teacher, always provocative and stimulating. Not only did he leave many grateful patients, but also a generation of appreciative and grateful doctors.

In the 1950s he set a fine example of medical research with his retrospective study of lead poisoning, a preventable disease that blighted the lives of young Queensland people for generations, taking lives early and leaving many with hypertension and kidney failure. The epidemic was curtailed when the government banned lead in house paint in 1922 at the behest of a public-spirited group of doctors. This complex and detailed work earned David the much respected Doctorate of Medicine. It was the definitive study of lead-poisoning and a world first. This work was done between 1951 and 1955 while he was the First Research Fellow at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QMIR.) He was later to serve on the QIMR Council for two decades, and finally in 1982 to be made a Fellow for his important role in the development of the Institute as a centre of scientific research. The commendation referred to David’s deep conviction that research experience contributes positively to the better practice of clinical medicine.

It had long bothered him that those who taught medical students and medical graduates sometimes needed themselves to be taught how to teach. In 1964, in cooperation with The Department of Education, University of Queensland, David and others organized a huge seminar, officially the Vice-Chancellor’s Conference on Clinical Teaching. It was pronounced a great success.
In 1962 he received a Collier Grant to study certain aspects of undergraduate and post-graduate training in teaching hospitals in Sydney and Melbourne. He was a member of the RACP Grants Advisory Committee.

His concern with medical education led him to a seat on the senate of the University of Queensland from 1966 to 1974. During this time, he served on seven senate committees, including one on undergraduate education, and on the Faculty of Medicine. Later he went back to the roots of medical training. At his urging, in 1979 the Medical Board of Queensland appointed a committee, the Thompson Committee, to inquire into the future needs and training for medical practice in Queensland. David’s far-sighted advice contributed greatly to the Thompson Report. Published in 1981, it was largely this report that led to the radical changes in the medical courses in Australia over the last 20 years.

In 1984, he turned his interest to the information needs of isolated country doctors. He gave up his city practice and he and Kathleen moved to Rockhampton for two years, while David served as Coordinator of the Central Queensland Continuing Education Committee. The pilot study lasted from July 1984 to June 1986. The idea was to foster a system which would provide information to isolated rural doctors by using information technology. He had been one of the earliest people to recognize the potential of computers in communication and teaching.

Through 1987, David was executive secretary to the Queensland Institute of Medical Research Working Party. The work of this group was followed by a vast expansion in the size and the role of the QIMR. He never lost his interest in the causation of the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

David had a variety of interests. He had a love of opera. He was involved in the activities of his children- sailing, football and rowing. He would spend days on end dismantling and re-assembling his old Landrover. He was also physically energetic. His many friends and his family shared his enjoyment of Jumpinpin and later, Fraser Island.

To many of us David was a great friend; to the medical profession and the community, a great doctor; and to the world he lived in for 85 years, he was, without doubt, a great man. He was survived by his wife, Kathleen, his sons David and Richard, his daughter Margaret and eight grand-children.