Graham Gordon

Who was Graham Gordon?

Dr. Graham Rothwell Gordon, Surgeon, St John's officer, NZMA Council Chairman and NZMA President, was born in Stratford, New Zealand on December 10, 1927. He was the third of four children born to Dr. William Patteson Pollock Gordon and Doris Clifton Gordon who ran the medical practice Marire Home in Stratford.

Gordon was committed to the family practice and his home town of Stratford for the remainder of his life, also practicing as a part-time visiting surgeon at Stratford Hospital from 1957 until the theatre closed in 1992. He was a police surgeon for over 30 years, an officer in St. John Ambulance, and an honorary surgeon in the Stratford Volunteer Fire Brigade with whom he set up New Zealand’s first rural GP first-response road trauma service. He was also involved in helicopter Search & Rescue work. An executive member of the Taranaki division of the New Zealand Medical Association for 19 years, Gordon held the office of secretary and then president. He served as NZMA Council Chairman from 1977–1988, and NZMA President from 1990–1991, being elected a Fellow in 1981.

Gordon sold his business in 1999 but never retired, continuing his input into local health issues and patient care until a few weeks before his death. In 2000 he was awarded the Stratford District Citizen’s award. Dr. Graham Gordon died on February 29, 2004, aged 76. He was predeceased by his wife Barbara in 1999, and the two of them were survived by six children.