Associate Prof David Gerrard was announced patron of the Pat Farry Rural Health Education Trust during the New Zealand Rural General Practice Network conference, in Wellington, last night.
Prof Gerrard said yesterday, as a medical educator, he saw the establishment of the trust as an evolution from the tireless efforts Pat Farry had put in to stimulate faculty and general practice interest in rural medicine, which led to the Rural Medical Immersion Programme, from 2007.
"Pat had been a colleague, a mentor and a friend to me. As an undergraduate medical student, my rural general practice experience was in Queenstown under Pat's tutelage and my eldest son, who went through the Otago Medical School, also had the same experience, so we can claim two generations of having that personal exposure to Pat's wisdom and understanding in things rural and medicine."
Prof Gerrard is director of development and alumni relations in the office of the vice-chancellor, having been associate dean to the faculty of medicine and the Dunedin School of Medicine since 2000.
His publications and areas of medical research include paediatric sports medicine, undergraduate medical education, sports injury prevention, bioethics and anti-doping strategies in sport.
Prof Gerrard OBE CNZM is the immediate past chairman of Drug-Free Sport New Zealand, present chairman of the New Zealand Drowning Prevention Council and holds positions with international sports medicine committees, including the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Swimming Federation.
He was a Olympian in 1964, a gold medallist in swimming at the 1966 Commonwealth Games, an Olympic team physician, as well as Chef de Mission and medical commissioner for a period of eight Summer Olympics.
Dr Farry practiced as a rural GP in the Wakatipu from 1971 until he died in 2009 aged 65.
The trust was set up in his name one year ago to continue his pioneering work to support the sustainability and quality of health services for the rural communitiesThe trust is chaired by Dr Farry's brother, John (a Dunedin lawyer), with Sue Farry (Dr Farry's Queenstown-based widow), Dr Stuart Gowland, Dr John Hillock, Dr Branko Sijnja, Kirsty Mirrell-McMillan and Michele Wilkie as trustees.
