Victor Fazio, or 'Vic' as everyone called him, defined colorectal surgery for a generation. For many he was 'the' colorectal surgeon, a dominating figure in the specialty, which he helped to develop and for which he provided leadership and inspiration. He was the youngest ever department chief when he was appointed head of colorectal surgery at the Cleveland Clinic at the age of 35. He was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, of Italian Catholic forbears. He grew up in Tuncurry, on the coast just north of Sydney. His father, also Victor, was a fisherman who had won a Distinguished Service Medal while serving in the Royal Australian Navy during Second World War. His mother, Kathleen Hills, was widowed when Victor junior was only 11. He and his brother Joe were sent off to school at St Joseph's College, Sydney. In 1957 he went to the University of Sydney Medical School, supported by the Legacy Foundation for the children of war veterans. He played rugby for the university and in the junior leagues around Sydney. Joe was a rowing silver medallist for Australia at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. Vic graduated in 1965, was an anatomy demonstrator and did his surgical training at St Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst and was made fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1971. He served in the Australian surgical team at Bien Hoa during the Vietnam war. In 1972 he went to the United States as a fellow in hepatobiliary surgery with Ken Warren at the Lahey Clinic in Boston. The following year he was appointed as a fellow in colon and rectal surgery with Rupert Turnbull at the Cleveland Clinic, and this was to be a career defining moment. He was made chair and head of the department of colorectal surgery in 1996. The clinic became one of the foremost departments of colorectal surgery in the world. He was an exceptionally talented surgeon, making important contributions to the development of surgery for ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease and colorectal cancer. He had an unrivalled appetite for hard work and extraordinary stamina. He seemed to know everything about his subject, and yet was delighted to share it with every one of his residents and the many surgeons he knew around the world and to whom he lectured. Former colleagues describe a combination of ability, compassion, selflessness and devotion to his patients. One said that Vic would have been a huge success in whatever profession he chose - 'he would have at the very least been a cardinal in the Catholic Church'. Widely consulted for his opinion by colleagues and patients around the world, he even gave advice in 1981 over the telephone to the surgical team looking after Pope John Paul II after he sustained gunshot wounds in an assassination attempt. His major contributions were to clinical research, publishing regularly on one of the largest collections of ileoanal pouch patients. He was an important opinion former, but had a passion for evidence. For 10 years he was editor in chief of the journal *Diseases of Colon and Rectum*. He was president of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons in 1995, and had been chair of the specialist examination board. He was awarded an honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 2001. There were many other distinctions. In 2000 he was the first recipient of Cleveland Clinic's Master Clinician award. Two years later, he was the first winner of the Al and Norma Lerner Humanitarian award, the clinic's highest honour. In 2014 he won a lifetime achievement honour at the US National Physician of the Year awards. In his home country, he was awarded the Order of Australia in 2004. He was married to Carolyn for nearly 50 years and they had three children - Victor, David and Jane. Vic died after a protracted leukaemic illness and, after services in Cleveland, Ohio, he was buried in Tinonee, New South Wales.