Kevin Chambers was a consultant surgeon in Mildura, Victoria, Australia. He grew up in Sydney, the youngest of three children of Raymond John Chambers and Margaret Scott Chambers née Brown. His father Ray was the first professor of accounting at Sydney University. His work on accounting attracted civil and professional awards and honorary degrees both in Australia and overseas. Kevin was influenced by his father throughout his life, instilling in him the values of integrity, hard work and ongoing learning. At the age of 11, Kevin travelled with his family overseas for over a year, while his father lectured in the USA, Europe and Asia. On his return Kevin attended Blakehurst High School in Sydney for his secondary education. He enrolled in medicine at Sydney University and completed his degree in 1973. In the same year Kevin married Akanesi Havili and had three children. Akanesi died of breast cancer in 1995. From 1973 to 1974 he was a resident medical officer at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPA) in Sydney. In 1975 he accepted a position as a senior tutor in anatomy at Sydney University. This was followed by his appointment as a registrar at RPA from 1976 to 1980, where Kevin gained his fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He was particularly grateful to Brian Morgan at RPA for his training and mentorship during this time. Kevin went to the UK in 1981 as a surgical registrar at Southend-on-Sea, completing his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1982. In 1983 Kevin had intended to return to Sydney, but that option became unavailable with the closure of three Sydney hospitals and the decision that no outside appointments would be made until all the staff who had lost their positions had been placed elsewhere. A physician friend encouraged Kevin to join him in Mildura, Victoria situated on Australia’s longest river, the Murray. Mildura is on the edge of the outback over 1,000 kms from Sydney. A few years later, Kevin was offered placement in Sydney, but he had settled into life in Mildura and chose to stay there. The extensive Loddon Mallee region surrounding Mildura was provided with over 30 years of world-class surgical care by Kevin. From 1983, Kevin was the on-call surgeon for Mildura Base Hospital, providing the hospital first-on-call emergency services. Kevin married Julie Jamieson in 1996 and it was in this year that he achieved accreditation of the hospital for the training of junior medical staff. He continued to lead the expansion of surgical services at Mildura, allowing people of the region to have access to multiple surgical specialties, expanding both elective and emergency surgery options within the region as director of surgery. As the senior surgeon based in Mildura, Kevin was uncompromising in his support of the surgeons he had recruited to join him. This included attending both the Mildura Base Hospital and Mildura Private Hospital at any time day or night to provide a senior surgical opinion or technical assistance. Kevin did not accept anything but the best care for his patients, and repeatedly demonstrated his commitment to lifelong learning and improvement in surgical practice. In pursuit of excellence, he completed numerous surgical skill courses and workshops and took opportunities to observe other surgeons to maintain a contemporary skillset and provide minimally invasive surgical options, as well as undertaking training in the insertion of biventricular pacemakers and bariatric surgical services. He fostered a culture of continuing professional development through the instigation and chairing of the Mildura Base Hospital General Surgery Journal Club, with weekly meetings for critical appraisal of peer-reviewed literature and discussion of best management practices. Noting the great demand for cancer treatment in the local region, Kevin personally invested in skill acquisition and recruited both remote specialist input and advanced technology to provide oncological services to the Sunraysia community. This included the founding and ongoing chairing of the Loddon-Mallee District Integrated Cancer Services to enable multidisciplinary care of cancer sufferers within the home community. This process provided a gold standard of care, equivalent to services provided in tertiary metropolitan hospitals throughout Australia and was only made possible by Kevin’s hard work and commitment to communication and collaboration within the healthcare profession throughout Victoria. Through his work with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS), Kevin contributed to the surgical profession in a number of ways. He was a second-line assessor for the Victorian Audit of Surgical Mortality. This role entailed reviewing complex surgical cases which required further investigation to identify risk factors affecting patient outcomes peri operatively and to facilitate improvements to minimise the risk to Australians undergoing surgical procedures. He participated in audits for RACS for national breast cancer treatment, hernia repair, laparoscopic surgery, thyroid, colorectal, non-cosmetic breast surgery and laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Kevin was an interviewer for doctors applying for surgical training. As well as being a supervisor of advanced surgical training, he was the supervisor of overseas trained specialists at Mildura Base Hospital for RACS. He was also a participant in the Victorian-Tasmanian training committee. Kevin was involved in advocacy at national and state forums, had original work published in the *Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery*. He was secretary of the Mallee subdivision of the Australian Medical Association. As one of Australia’s most experienced and senior surgeons and as a supervisor of training of surgical registrars, Kevin contributed to the training of many of today’s eminent surgeons. His dedication to teaching and empowering healthcare providers at their best was not limited to his surgical registrars and students. He was a long-term supervisor of intern training through the Postgraduate Medical Council of Victoria and provided numerous education sessions and opportunities to nursing, allied health and medical professions in a range of settings. He instilled in multiple generations of doctors a passion for unwavering excellence in healthcare delivery. As a teacher, he was inspirational; surgeons throughout Australia are indebted to him for the training and encouragement he gave them. He was never complacent or easily satisfied and demanded and received the highest standard from trainee doctors and surgeons, colleagues and hospital administrators. Listening to Kevin speak was always a delight. He was a wonderful storyteller; articulate, humorous or serious as the circumstances arose. When addressing a community meeting or media event his resonant tones gave authority to his forthright opinions. When the Mildura Base Hospital was privatised by a Liberal Party State Government, Kevin instigated a public meeting to inform the community of the dangers. He was seen as the reason some years later for the community being successful in returning the hospital to public hands Kevin supported his wife Julie in the arts and with the construction of a purpose-built building in 2006 called the Art Vault. This facility contributed substantially to Mildura’s profile in Australian art circles as well as to the careers of many national and international artists in residence. The first Australian Print Triennial was held at the Art Vault in 2015 and the second in 2018. These triennials brought artists, academics and arts ambassadors from around the world to Mildura and elevated the region as a vibrant cultural centre. In 2018 Kevin received the Order of Australia medal for his contribution to medicine and the community. This was not the first time he had gained recognition. In 1993 he was named a life governor of the Mildura Base Hospital. In 2008 he received an award from the Mildura Base Hospital in recognition of 25 years of commitment, dedication and service to the hospital. In 2010 he received the Victorian Rural Health award for outstanding contribution to the community, and in 2017 he was the recipient of the General Surgeons of Australia Excellence in Surgical Teaching award for Victoria and Tasmania. At the age of 72, Kevin died after suffering a cardiac arrest. It was a death he had cheated for many years, having survived a previous cardiac arrest while operating at Mildura Private Hospital in 2016. Kevin had suffered from cardiomyopathy for many years and had had several heart attacks. He never had the demeanour of a sick man and continued to work full time until his death doing what he loved most. He was an imposing man with a big heart – courageous, totally dedicated and committed to his work, family, friends and community. He will be remembered for his dry sense of humour, the twinkle in his eye, humanity and compassion. He was the genuine article, and everyone felt at ease in his company and with his blunt honesty. Kevin was survived by his wife Julie, two sisters Margaret and Rosemary, three children Jasmine, Jennifer, Scott and stepdaughter Kylie, their partners and eight grandchildren.