His many contributions and leadership roles have been in pathology, basic and applied research, social and preventive medicine, medical education, healthcare administration, military medicine and veterans’ health. He was Deputy Director-General of Health in Queensland for a decade and during this period chaired the Drug Testing Committee for the 1982 Commonwealth Games. From 1992-99 he was Professor and Head of the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Queensland and Head of the School of Medicine from 2000 until retirement in 2006. He was an outstanding all-round sportsman at school and represented Queensland at athletics and rugby, playing nine Tests for the Wallabies from 1957-60. He maintained interest in sport and was a Queensland rugby selector in the 1970s and 1980s and manager of the Wallabies from 1979-81.