Dr Barry Partridge was instrumental in the development of Tauranga Hospital's surgical unit and was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to medicine. Photo / File
Dr Barry Partridge was instrumental in the development of Tauranga Hospital's surgical unit and was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to medicine. Photo / File
Medicine coloured the life of Dr Barry Partridge and without him, Tauranga Hospital would not be as we know it now.
The doctor died peacefully on June 21, aged 85.
Partridge dedicated more than 40 years to his passion, and even in retirement, it was medicine that "coloured his conversation" and became his preoccupation.
However, his sister, Margaret Walls, told the Bay of Plenty Times she didn't believe anyone would have guessed the once shy boy would lead the life he did.
In 1949, when 15-year-old Barry William Oliver Partridge left Te Puke High School, the son of a local builder intended to follow in his father's footsteps.
But everything changed when, aged 18, he was called up for compulsory military training.
His military training over, he returned home and while completing his apprenticeship, began studying for his university entrance exams through Hemingway's correspondence school.
"But he didn't do it in physics and maths as he should have," Margaret said.
"He did it in music and history, but those in charge counted the credits achieved not the subject."
Dr Barry Partridge was once a shy boy from Te Puke, but led a successful career in vascular surgery. Photo / Supplied
The rest, as they say, is history.
At the University of Otago, the former carpenter traded his hammer, saw and leather apron for a theatre gown and scalpel, showing early promise by winning the David White prize for surgery.
In 1968, after completing his surgical training in England, Partridge returned to New Zealand, initially working as a tutor specialist at Wellington Hospital.
It was in 1970, Partridge was invited to join Tauranga Hospital and he took up the post of a consultant surgeon.
At the time, he was one of just three surgeons. In addition to working as a general surgeon, he pioneered the development of vascular (vein) surgery at the hospital.
For eight years he served on the board of the College of Surgeons and held the position of clinical director of surgery in Tauranga until his retirement in 2004 - the same year he was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to medicine.
Margaret's husband, Keith, said Partridge had seen the hospital grow from a once provincial facility to something "quite serious" that could specialise in various fields.
So much so that in 2009, Partridge presented the Vascular Society of New Zealand with a book titled The History of Vascular Surgery at Tauranga.
"Medicine became his life so that in his old age he really lived that and it tended to colour all his conversations," Keith said.
