John Pearce Maddern
John Pearce Maddern AM
Urologist
12 September 1925 - 8 March 2015
John Maddern, a major founder of the Urology training scheme, recently died on 8.3.2015. He has left a lasting legacy.
John was born in 1925, schooled in Adelaide, and graduated MBBS at Adelaide University in 1948. He commenced a 40-year association with Royal Adelaide Hospital when he started as an intern in 1949. He passed his FRACS in general surgery in 1952, and furthered his training in urology in London and in Canada.
On return to Adelaide, he found that urology was still being done in general surgical units, but he was appointed as head of the new Department of Urology at RAH in 1959. He continued in that lead role 24 years, influencing many trainee urologists.
John was a "surgeon's surgeon", a slick and efficient technician in the days of open urology, with careful attention to detail. He was also an early academic, with a MS awarded in 1965 for a study on staghorn calculi, and multiple prize essays. He was assistant editor of the British Journal of Urology from 1977-1985.
He worked hard for the Urology Society of Australia and New Zealand, earlier established in 1937. He served as President in 1968-69, and was made the inaugural Chair of the Training Accreditation and Education Committee in 1980 (the Board of Urology of the RACS). From 1980-1986 he spent considerable effort in standardizing urological training, and was RACS examiner for Urology 1974-1984.
Co-opted membership of RACS Council as a specialty Councillor naturally followed, and he strongly represented the specialty in that role.
He was awarded an AM for involvement in golf, his recreational passion. His handicap long remained lower than his (normal) PSA, a urologist's dream! He played state golf for South Australia, and was a longstanding member of multiple golf clubs including Royal Adelaide and St Andrew's.
Guy Maddern FRACS