Keith Viner Smith was born in Adelaide in 1915, the son of Adelaide stockbroker, Cuthbert Viner Smith, and his wife, Edith Josephine (née Gardner). He had an older brother, Gavin, who graduated in medicine to become a general practitioner and a younger sister, Prim, who was a nurse; both siblings predeceased him. Keith grew up in close association with his younger cousin, Roderick Gardner McEwin, who was later to become Director of Health in New South Wales. Keith married Elaine Alabaster in 1946. She died in 1997 and he is survived by his daughter, Ruth, a lawyer, and two grandsons.

Educated at St Peter's College, Adelaide and the University of Adelaide, he graduated in medicine in 1939 and was a resident at the Royal Adelaide Hospital for only a few months before joining the Australian Army Medical Corps. He served as a Captain until 1945 in the Middle East, Australia and New Guinea and progressed to the rank of Major as a Company Commander in the llth Field Ambulance. His work was mainly with Field Units including 2/6 Field Ambulance and the 2/27 Australian Infantry Battalion. He was 'mentioned in dispatches' in 1943 for `gallant and distinguished services in the S.W.P. (South West Pacific) Area'. He obviously retained vivid memories of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt and the Kokoda but, like so many of his returned comrades, was unwilling to talk of his experiences in these theatres of war.

He retired from the army because of ill health and worked from 1946 to 1950 in the Pathology Department at the University of Sydney, then headed by Professor Keith Inglis. He moved in 1950 to Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH), Sydney as an assistant to Dr Colin Graham. There he developed his interest in pulmonary diseases which he pursued when he returned to the University's Pathology Department in 1956 as Senior Lecturer under Professor Frank Magarey. He was appointed Associate Professor in 1962.

In 1963 Keith returned to the Royal North Shore Hospital as a Morbid Anatomist and the following year was appointed Director of Pathology. He remained at RNSH as a Staff Specialist Anatomical Pathologist until his retirement in 1980. During the later hospital years he developed an additional interest in thyroid disease.

Major publications during his years at the Royal North Shore Hospital and the University included 'A survey of the types and severity of emphysema in routine autopsies' of 103 patients, an important prospective study and the first of its kind to be made in Australia. The lungs were extensively examined by several methods after inflation and formalin insufflation (Australasian Annals of Medicine 1965; 14: 28-34). A paper presented earlier at a symposium of the Australian Thoracic Society and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1960 discussed the pathology and development of diffuse interstitial pulmonary fibrosis 'Chronic diffuse interstitial pneumonia and diffuse interstitial pulmonary fibrosis' (Med J Aust 1961;2: 244-247).

Keith was tall, dignified and courteous with a keen sense of humour. Medical students appreciated his pathology lectures and demonstrations for their correlation with clinical medicine as well as their entertainment value. In the hospital setting he was always very supportive of registrars in-training and technical staff and enjoyed good relationships with clinicians. He was much admired by his colleagues for his honesty and high principles.

Interests outside medicine included rowing at school and university and he would reminisce about his holidays and his father's boat on the Murray River. Photography and gardening were later interests and he was proud of his gardens and orchids at Balmoral in Sydney. Keith retained an interest in music and theatre and, following his retirement, he enthusiastically pursued his family history.

Later years were difficult for Keith when he was rendered paraplegic by an episode of Guillain-Barrë syndrome in 1993, followed some years later by a stroke. His maintenance of his independence, despite these physical insults, was impressive, again demonstrating 'gallantry' in adversity. He finally moved to a nursing home in Canberra close to his daughter and died there in September, 2006.