Selwyn Kerry Burcher came from a long-established Auckland family. He attended Remuera Primary School and Auckland Grammar School where he was head boy and captain of the school's first fifteen in rugby football for three years. He graduated MB, ChB from Otago University in 1941, undertook his house surgeon years at Auckland Hospital followed by service overseas with the 3rd New Zealand Division in the Pacific and then in Italy with the 1st New Zealand General Hospital. He travelled on to England to complete both the Edinburgh and London Fellowship examinations in 1946 and worked at the Royal Masonic Hospital. In 1951 he became FRACS. On his return to New Zealand he worked at the Auckland Hospital as senior registrar and for a time acted as their medical superintendent. From here he went out to develop a practice in general surgery, while maintaining a part-time commitment with the Auckland Hospital Board. In this latter capacity he developed the paediatric surgical services, particularly with regard to neo-natal surgical diseases and abnormalities on which topic he delivered a number of papers. He was also instrumental in initiating the team work for the alimentary by-pass techniques. His teaching rounds were well attended as he was an able and very lucid teacher and the knowledge he presented was interspersed with humorous stories extracted from his benign and rather pragmatic observations on the human race. Serving various hospital and medical committees occupied much of his time and his advice was aways being sought on administrative matters. He was elected Chairman of the Auckland Branch of the New Zealand Medical Association, Chairman of the New Zealand Council of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and Chairman of the division of surgeons, Auckland Hospital. He was on the RACS Board of Examiners in general surgery for a full term. He had a lifelong interest in rugby football and was on the medical panel of the Auckland Rugby Union for over 20 years. All sporting events were popular with him and he spent many busy days at Ellerslie where he was the senior medical officer on the Auckland Racing Club's panel. A gregarious man, he loved company and was quite at home with an audience of any age. He was enthusiastic about good food and wine. While in Sengiallia on the Adriatic coast during the war he met and married Deidre Mulligan. They had a daughter and two sons, Terry who joined the Auckland Hospital surgical training scheme and Tim who became a law student in Otago. He died on 28 January 1977 after a long and distressing illness.