Ian Ferguson was head of the vascular unit at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne. He and his two brothers Neil and Russell were born in Longreach in central Queensland to Peter Ferguson and Leuwin Ferguson née Roxburgh. The Ferguson family owned several large farming properties. Ian had been obsessed by aircraft since he was a young child and had hoped to join the Royal Australian Air Force, but the loss of an eye due to a stockwhip accident when he was nine prevented this. Later his uncle Rupert, a doctor, encouraged him to do medicine. Ian’s early education was intermittent. He did some correspondence, read widely from his father’s library and the brothers had a series of governesses who did not stay long. (One was tied to a tree for a day.) He missed at least two years of school and during that time worked on several of the family properties and at the Blackall Woolscour, which his father managed. Eventually he told his father that he should go to school and was sent to Rockhampton Grammar then to Geelong Grammar in Victoria. After completing school, he went to the University of Melbourne to study medicine and graduated in 1951. Following a year as a resident at the Alfred Hospital, he served with the army in Korea for 12 months. On his return to Australia, he became a registrar to the professorial thoracic surgical unit at the Alfred Hospital. This included research at the Baker Institute, where he designed an oxygenator pump, which was later used on patients. In 1957, he ran the pump used by Ken Morris, assisted by Sir James Officer Brown, for the first successful open-heart operation. Ian obtained the FRACS in 1957 and travelled to England, where he worked at Guy’s Hospital with Sir Hedley Atkins and others and achieved the FRCS. The time at Guy’s gave him a very strong grounding in surgery. He returned to Australia in 1961 and rejoined the thoracic unit at the Alfred where, encouraged by physician Alf Barnett, he took on vascular surgery. Until 1954 peripheral vascular disease had been treated by lumbar sympathectomy or amputation. Later cadaver then teflon and dacron grafts were used, but Ian realised that venous grafts would be superior. Initially he performed femoropopliteal bypasses, then realised that femorotibial grafts were possible and performed, possibly, the first of these in the world. In 1974 a separate vascular unit was formed – the first in Australia – with Ian as head supported by surgeons Sam Rosengarten and Ken Stuchbery. Apart from peripheral vascular disease, the unit had great success with aortic, visceral and extracranial carotid artery disease. When Ian retired from the Alfred in 1987 at the age of 60 (as was then mandatory) the vascular laboratory was named after him, commemorating his pioneering work at the hospital. In 1966 Ian led a surgical team from the Alfred to Bien Hoa in Vietnam with surgeon Cas McInnes, anaesthetist Bob Grey and eight nurses. They operated largely on civilians who were casualties of the war. Ian took the then prime minister of Australia, Harold Holt, on a tour of the hospital when he went to visit the troops. Ian had many interests and lived a very active life. Interests included fly fishing – he had an elegant and extremely long cast – and cars. He was interested in all things mechanical and owned several Bugattis, Bristols and Ferraris and drove on hill climbs and rallies. He always bought cars of high quality – except for a beaten-up Ford, which he kept at a Melbourne airport to commute to work. His main interest, however, was flying. He discovered that he could fly as a private pilot with monocular vision and became involved in gliding, competing in state and national championships. He then obtained a general aviation licence and bought a Chipmunk, which he used for travel, towing gliders and aerobatics. Later he sold the Chipmunk and bought an Italian-designed SIAI-Marchetti, which was also aerobatic and which was used as an air force trainer in some countries. He became interested in flying and building ultralights, so he and his wife Juliet bought a property in northern Victoria, where they used a paddock as an airstrip. The property was quite large, so they had to become farmers as well. They moved from Melbourne to the property and Ian used the Marchetti to commute to Melbourne and to Latrobe Valley and Horsham, where he was a visiting specialist. Ian and Juliet had many exciting trips together in the Marchetti, the most memorable being flying to Italy and back in the small single engine aircraft with its rather meagre instrument panel. Highlights included three house arrests – in Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Sumatra. In 1988 Ian established the Yabba North Flying Association using the farm as a base for enthusiasts to fly and learn to fly ultralights. The club farewelled Ian as ‘a great leader, inspiration and fount of knowledge’. After retirement from his private practice, he became an ultralight instructor, sold the Marchetti, bought back the Chipmunk and commenced to build a Falco, a wooden aircraft designed by Stelio Frati, the Italian who had designed the Marchetti. This took six years to build and was followed by many more years of flying with trips in Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. Ian stopped flying when he was 84 – except for a flight in a ‘rag and tube’ ultralight, which he flew when he was 90. He flew it perfectly. Ian was a remarkable person and lived a full and adventurous life. Despite the loss of his eye and the paucity of his early education, he had a very successful career as a vascular surgeon and became a very competent pilot. He was survived by Juliet, three children – Peta, Duncan and Kay – three grandchildren and two great grandchildren. His first wife, Nell (née Taylor), predeceased him, as did his brother Neil.