The son of a UK-trained surgeon, Dick Rischbieth was born in North Adelaide, where his father worked, before spending much of his life in Walkerville.

Educated at St. Peter's College, he had a lifelong association with scouting and camping. He camped with friends on Kangaroo Island where they supplemented their rations with wallabies, possums and sharks. His interest in bird watching took him to Shetland to study the puffins and to the Alaskan ice flows.

He graduated in medicine from the University of Adelaide in 1950, then pursued his studies at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Western Australia and at London Queen's Square. He attained MRCP (London and Edinburgh) and returned to Australia as a neurologist in 1958. He later served in the Naval Reserve. He helped to establish the Neurology Unit in the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital, being head of unit from 1961 to 1992. It is said that his juniors and countless students recall the notorious Thursday six hour teaching rounds known as "the lantern shift".

His deep religious faith was reflected in his life long involvement in St Andrews Church and Anglican School, the Anglican Synod, The Christian Medical Fellowship and through his service to the boards of Bedford Industries and the Memorial Hospital. He was on the Council of his old school, St. Peter's College, for many years and attended his 30th speech day as an Old Scholar in December 2006. His great respect for country Australians led him to establish boarding and tuition scholarships at both St Peter's College and Wilderness School.

He was a keen bowler and hill walker, always keen to pack as much as possible into a day. He is known to have visited 10 London museums and art galleries in a day!

He had a very happy marriage and leaves his wife, Judy, sons Peter, a rural GP, Henry, a physiotherapist, and Hugh, a lawyer, and daughter Anne, also a physiotherapist, and eight grandchildren.