Michael Hugh Melville (Hugh) Ryan AM spent 65 years as an ophthalmologist, retiring only eight months before he died. His life was led with great intellectual integrity, a thirst for knowledge and a compassion for people. He graduated Dux of the Medical Course at Melbourne University in 1937 and was a Resident at St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne. He went to England to train as an ophthalmologist, arriving by boat three weeks before the outbreak of the Second World War. His initial eye training was two years at the Royal Westminster Eye Hospital and thereafter he enlisted in the RAAF in 1940. Hugh served as an ophthalmologist in New Guinea at Milne Bay and at Medang. After the war he remained as a consultant ophthalmologist with the RAAF as a Group Captain. Further ophthalmic training was undertaken at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London where Hugh was the first Australian to graduate after the war, having undertaken the FRCS by examination. There was no subspecialty training at that time. However, Hugh did learn and brought back to Australia the modern lacrimal drainage operation, that is, the dacryocystorhinostomy. On returning to Australia in 1948, he was appointed as Assistant Ophthalmic Surgeon at St Vincent's Hospital. Kevin O'Day was in charge of the Unit and, when he retired, Hugh became the Senior Surgeon from 1960 to 1973. At St Vincent's Hospital, he was the first ophthalmologist to undertake a corneal graft. There were two outpatient and one operating sessions per week that were always very busy. He loved being involved in teaching and always had students in the clinics. He initiated the first Neuro-Ophthalmology Meeting in Melbourne in association with John Billings, a neurologist and Keith Henderson, the neurosurgeon. Hugh managed to fit in time during his lunch to do the ocular pathology at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital for seven years from 1948 to 1955. He always had an interest in pathology having won the exhibition in the subject as a fourth year medical student. Hugh was also appointed to the Royal Women's Hospital from 1948 to 1972. From that interest, he developed a large paediatric, practice particularly in glaucoma and strabismus surgery. At the hospital he examined all the premature babies and noted a relatively high incidence of retrolental fibroplasia. Two registrars, Dr Kate Campbell and Hugh noted that the incidence of retrolental fibroplasia was much lower at the Queen Victoria Hospital than at the Royal Women's Hospital with the premature infants. They then sat down and documented all the characteristics of the babies and their treatments in the two hospitals. It became obvious that the only difference was that the Royal Women's Hospital gave the premature babies much more oxygen than the Queen Victoria Hospital. The link between retrolental fibroplasia and oxygen was then initially announced by Kate Campbell and later written up by Hugh Ryan. That was a dramatic discovery for which he has not been fully recognised. He was President of the Ophthalmological Society of Australia from 1965 to 1966 and this was the forerunner of the present College. Hugh was intimately involved in the creation of the Ophthalmic Research Institute of Australia and was its Chairman from 1968 to 1972. For many years he was examiner for both the Diploma of Ophthalmology and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Eye Examination. For many years, at least half the work Hugh undertook was on a voluntary basis. The public hospital service was not paid and he, together with his cousin Edward, saw most of the Catholic nuns and priests without charge until the introduction of Medicare in 1972. One interesting task that was given to Hugh by the Catholic Church was to examine all the records of the medical miracles that occurred at Lourdes. He undertook this work with a general surgeon and, surprisingly, they were unable to document a single case of a cure that would stand up to peer review publication. In discussion Hugh said the commonest eye condition to recover sight was optic atrophy in children, a condition which is particularly difficult to diagnose, since the optic disc is often pale in young children and visual maturation may be delayed. He was made a Knight of the Catholic Church in 1965 KCSG for his services to the Church. This was a rare honour, as there is only one other doctor, John Billings, who made popular the Rhythm method of contraception and has been the recipient of this honour. Hugh was my mentor as he was to many aspiring ophthalmologists in Victoria. He led a very full life, marrying Beryl in 1946 and they had three daughters, and one son who tragically died in childhood. Hugh was very proud of his three daughters and they, with their families gave him much happiness. After Beryl's death, his family together with Betty Barrett, his companion, were his great support. His interests included golf, tennis, skiing, bee keeping and beach holidays at Flinders. He did not miss a Boxing Day Cricket Test Match at the MCG in 50 years. He was a painter all his life and in later years spent one day a week with the Victorian Artists' Society in life painting classes. In the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2005, Hugh was appointed as an AM (Member of the Order of Australia) for service to medicine, particularly in the field of ophthalmology as a practitioner and researcher. In the last five years of his ophthalmic practice, he had joined our group and was loved by all the staff and still had a devoted following of patients. His infectious optimism and high-pitched laughter will be sadly missed by us all.