Eric Ian Alan Macdonald was born in Melbourne on 30 October 1901 but soon moved to New Zealand, where he was educated at Remuera District School,Auckland Grammar School and Auckland University where he graduated MB, ChB in 1924. From 1926 to 1930 he obtained specialist training in a number of London hospitals including Golden Square. After obtaining the FRCS he returned to Auckland where he practised as an ENT surgeon for 41 years, first at Auckland Hospital and later at Green Lane Hospital where he introduced the chest physicians and Sir Douglas Robb to the skills of bronchoscopy. In 1936 he became FRACS and in 1952 became the first New Zealand member of the Collegium Otorhinolaryngologicae Amicitiae Sacrum - the most prestigious international body in his specialty. He is fondly remembered for his surgical skill and his patient and sympathetic manner. He died on February 28 1984 survived by his wife Winifred, a well-known local historian, his son Graham, a neurosurgeon in Auckland, his younger son Gerard, a physicist in Sussex, his daughter Alison, an advertising executive in the USA, and five grandchildren.