Kenneth Beeson Noad, always known to his friends as "Bob", was born in Maitland in 1900 and his early education occurred there. Very soon, however, he came to Sydney where he graduated in medicine at Sydney University in 1924. He did his residency training at Sydney Hospital, the Royal Hospital for Women and the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children and he then went to London for postgraduate training in 1928 and 1929 and became a member of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1929. Back in Sydney Bob was befriended by the distinguished Sydney physician Allan Holmes a Court who was impressed by the young physician's abilities and often left him in charge of his practice when he was overseas. 1935 was an important year for Bob. On 24th January of that year he married Eileen Ryan who remained his devoted wife throughout his life. In that year also he became an honorary assistant physician on the staff of the Sydney Hospital. This hospital remained thereafter the centre of Bob Noad's professional life and he rose to the position of honorary physician there in 1948. His other great love was the Royal Australasian College of Physicians which was founded in 1938 and Bob was a foundation fellow. He was later to rise to great heights in the College which he served faithfully and well all his professional life.
As with so many other young people the war interrupted Bob's profesional progress, but he threw himself into the war effort with characteristic enthusiasm. He was with 2nd/5th Australian General Hospital in Greece and later with 2nd/11th AGH in Alexandria where he was officer in charge of the medical division under the command of George Stening. He later served in New Guinea and, on his return to Australia, he commanded the medical division at Concord. He remained a consultant physician on the staff of the Repatriation General Hospital for many years. He gained his MD in 1953 for work he did on infectious disease in the Middle East.
After the war Bob was on the Council of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians for 15 years from 1951 to 1966. From 1948 to 1962 he was on the Board of Censors and he was Censor-in-Chief from 1958 to 1962. He served on the Executive Committee from 1958 to 1966 and he was President of the College from 1962 to 1964. For many years Bob was on the College Commission for South East Asia. He had always been interested in extending Australian facilities for medical training to the countries of the South East Asian region and, as President of the College, he was instrumental in organizing courses in 1963, 1964 and 1966. These courses were run jointly with the University of Singapore through the Colombo Plan. Guest lecturers were provided and students from South East Asia were able to take the MRACP examination in Singapore and then come to Australia for further practical training. This was a broad and imaginative initiative which served greatly to advance the reputation of Australian medicine and the prestige of Australia in the South East Asian region. For his efforts and foresight Bob was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Singapore in 1973.
Early in his professional career Bob had acquired a keen interest in Neurology. Though he always retained a high reputation in general medicine, he was one of the first neurologists in Sydney and his opinions in this discipline were widely valued. He had become friendly with famous neurological teachers abroad such as FMR Walshe, J Collier and Gordon Holmes in England. He founded the Neurology Clinic at Sydney Hospital and he was the Honorary Director of the Northcott Neurological Centre. I well remember attending Bob's Neurology Clinic when I was a student. He had the rare ability to bring out the essential features of diseases and clinical problems and to make them stand out clearly against the background of confusing detail. He was the student supervisor at Sydney Hospital for many years and organized student teaching and always remained a brilliant teacher. Many generations of physicians in training have delighted to sit at his feet and to follow his ward rounds. It was so encouraging to hear his praise "good boy" when one came up with the right answer.
His writings have been many and varied and always with style and literary allusion. There have been articles in the journal Brain on cerebellar atrophy and the neurological features of Tsutsugamushi Fever, a discourse on the Ophthalmological Society of Australia and many other important articles on neurological topics such as Optic Atrophy. Typical of Bob's broad interest in medicine, however, is the important article he wrote in 1940 with Douglas Miller in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery on renal stones and hyperparathyroidism - pioneering work. Bob's many other writings include addresses and lectures given for the Postgraduate Committee in Medicine, the Hudson-Deck Memorial Lecture at Sydney Hospital, the Bruce Hunt Memorial Oration, the Edward Stirling Lectures and others. Throughout these writings is Bob's delightful and limpid literary style interpersed with references from the classics. These are the writings of a well-educated and philosophical man. I have copies of them which I shall always treasure. As well as his general reading Bob was devoted to the latest neurological literature and the newest ideas. He once asked a tremulous student in the membership examination, "Now, sir, tell me what you know about Pachymeningitis Cervicalis Circumscripta". "Nothing, sir", the student replied. "Neither do we", said Bob. It is reported that the student passed.
Over the years Bob acquired a repuation and medical friendships not only in his own country but also abroad in Europe, Asia and America. It was his greatest delight to travel abroad which he did frequently and even in Australia he travelled far. His opinion was much sought also in country areas of New South Wales and he made frequent sorties to distant country towns for consultations and opinions. These journeys were made in small four seater aeroplanes and I well remember accompanying him on one of these to Kempsey to see a patient with respiratory paralysis. Bob sat in the front with the pilot and I sat in the back with a Bird's respirator. We came back in a larger passenger plane with some of the seats removed so as to accommodate the patient on his stretcher, the respirator and a nurse. During this flight Bob told me of some of his other experiences. On one occasion he was returning from the country in a small plane when they ran into heavy fog. The windscreen wiper motor had failed and the pilot had to put his hand out of the driver's window repeatedly to push the wiper blade to and fro. When the weather cleared the pilot confessed that he had lost his way. Bob, undaunted, produced a road and rail map of NSW from his briefcase. The pilot flew low over several railway stations so that they could read the names. They then located these on the map and followed the railway lines back to Sydney.
It would be vain to try to detail all of Bob Noad's many interests. His beautiful home in Cranbrook Road, Bellevue Hill, bore witness to his interests in art, literature and music. Bob at one stage was a passably good pianist and in his early years he was active on the Orchestra Committee of the Australian Broadcasting Commission welcoming and entertaining overseas artists. "Bob's got to be the president of everything", a colleague once remarked but this, I am sure, was sheer jealousy. The man was a true citizen of the world. Regrettably Bob and Eileen had no children and I am sure that he would have loved children dearly. He had a delightfully soft side to his nature which rejoiced in children and small animals. He once stopped his car in William Street in Sydney to reassure a small dog and remove it from danger much to the consternation of the traffic behind. I have known few more appalling car drivers than Bob and, on the few occasions I have accepted a lift from him, I have usually sought alternative transport for the return journey. The topic of conversation was always much more important than the rules of the road. His old friend Graham Robertson, the Melbourne neurologist, once came to Sydney to photograph the beautiful decorative cast iron lace-work on our old buildings for a book he was writing. Bob drove him about the town with frequent stops while Graham leant from the car window at precarious angles to obtain the best photographic views. There may yet be some motorists in Sydney who still mutter imprecations when they recall the experience.
Bob was also President of the Medico-Legal Society from 1964 to 1968 and on the organizing panel and later Vice-President and Honorary Life Member of the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences. Bob and Eileen were tireless in their hospitality to overseas medical visitors especially during the 25th anniversary celebrations of the college. In 1967 Professor Jan Brod and his wife visited Australia from Prague and Bob, despite initial misgivings about communist countries, was a wonderful host to this great man and his wife and even acted as baby-sitter. After his retirement from public hospital practice in 1960 Bob remained active in postgraduate affairs. These were the years of the presidency of the college and of his interests in South East Asia. He also remained active in his practice with the able assistance of Sister Joyce Ware who looked after day to day practical matters such as his timetable, fee charges and other practice details in which Bob took no interest. Bob was knighted in 1970 for his services to medicine. In his later years his memory began to fail but his sense of humour never deserted him. I will always remember his loud chuckle, his ever-ready wit and his keen interest in everything about him. After years of devoted care and attention from his wife Eileen, Bob died on 24th May 1987.