Ian Charles O’Rourke was an associate professor of surgery at the Northern Territory clinical school of Flinders University at Royal Darwin Hospital. He was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia on 20 December 1943. His mother was Patricia Robyn O’Rourke née Johns, the daughter of a publican; his father, Jack Allen O’Rourke, a grazier, died when O’Rourke was young. His ancestor, Charles Peter O’Rourke, helped found the town of Wee Waa in New South Wales. O’Rourke was raised in Orange, New South Wales, and attended Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Bowral and Saint Ignatius’ College in Riverview, Sydney. He went on to study medicine at Sydney University, supporting himself and his family by driving trucks and taxis. As a student, he rowed for New South Wales and played rugby for Sydney University. He qualified in 1968. He trained in surgery at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney and became a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1973 and the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1975. He returned to Orange, where he was a visiting surgeon to Orange, Parkes, Forbes and Wellington hospitals. He subsequently became a senior staff specialist, a clinical senior lecturer and clinical director of medical services and consultant to Westmead Hospital, Sydney. He particularly focused on oesophageal surgery, for which he had an international reputation. In 1992, he took leave to become a medical officer for the Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern, Sydney. Four years later, he moved to Cairns in north Queensland to provide surgical services to remote Aboriginal communities in Cape York. In 1997, he went to Darwin as an associate professor of surgery in the new Northern Territories clinical school of Flinders University. Here he championed specialist outreach services and served remote communities at Port Keats, Galiwinku and Gove. He also established the Northern Territory’s first diabetic foot service, which dramatically reduced amputations and hospital stays. He returned to Sydney in 2001, where he was chief executive officer of the New South Wales Institute for Clinical Excellence up until two weeks of his death from lung cancer on 16 August 2004 at the age of 60. He was survived by his wife Trish, two daughters and grandchildren.