Ronald (Ron) Hunter was born on 24 August 1922 in Nailsworth, South Australia. He was the son of Frederick Hunter, a tram operator and former accountant, and his wife Dulcie née Belcher. He had a brother Stewart who became a headmaster and three sisters; Betty, a microbiologist, Joy a nurse assistant and Mavis a teacher’s aide. Initially educated at Nailsworth School, he later attended Blair Athol School and finally Adelaide High School where he excelled academically and left with a university scholarship. He had contracted polio at the age of 14 and therefore had to spend a considerable time in hospital. It is said that this is what triggered his desire to study medicine. At the University of Adelaide Medical School he came first each year and was awarded the Everard scholarship when he graduated MB, BS in 1944. He did house jobs at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) and the Adelaide Children’s Hospital. In September 1941 he enlisted as a private soldier in the army and, having graduated in 1944, moved to the Australian Army Medical Corps. After initially training at home, he joined the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces in Japan in 1946 and served as a medical officer in the military hospital in Kure near Hiroshima. In 1948 he was demobilised and returned to Australia continuing to work as surgical registrar at the RAH. He travelled to the UK and worked at the Middlesex Hospital in London, passing the fellowship of the college in 1951. On his return to Adelaide, he rejoined the staff of the RAH and worked his way up from honorary clinical assistant to senior visiting surgeon. He was on several important hospital committees and chaired the department of general surgery from 1979 to 1981 during a time when the discipline was evolving into special interest groups. Although a general surgeon himself, he tended to concentrate on parotid, thyroid and breast surgery as well as biliary surgery. He performed the first liver South Australian resection for a solitary metastasis and difficult biliary strictures were always referred to him. Another important contribution was his emphasis on early screening for colorectal cancer. At the University of Adelaide he was a member of the faculty of medicine. Having passed the fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1951, he chaired their South Australia Committee and was on the Court of Examiners from 1973 to 1982. Notably, he was member of the board of the Burnside War Memorial Hospital from 1968 to 1993 and chairman of its medical committee – in acknowledgement of his efforts their operating theatres were named *The Ronald Hunter Theatre Suite*. After retiring in 1987 he continued his committee work and worked with an organisation which contributed medical supplies to Africa. Keen on sports, he played tennis and golf and also enjoyed sailing and skiing. He married Molly née Bennett, a nurse, in 1948 on his return from overseas. They had six children: Andrew, a colorectal surgeon; Dimity, a general practitioner; Sally a biologist; Caro a nurse; Jo, a kindergarten teacher and Ben, a mechanical engineer. When he died on 16 June 2005 aged 82, he was survived by Molly, his children, 16 grandchildren, and four great grandchildren.