M. St J. Surgeon (Retired) M.B.B.S (U.Qld.), M.S. (U.Qld.), F.R.C.S (Edin), F.R.A.C.S., M.C.I.C.D. (Rome).
(EMC 1947 – 51)
22.02.28 – 02.08.21
We farewell former Emmanuel College alumnus and surgeon, Wylie D. Gibbons who passed away peacefully on 2 August 2021.
Wylie was born in Townsville on 22 February 1928, a passionate and tenacious man who dedicated his life to helping others. Graduating from The University in Queensland in 1951, Wylie started his medical career as a general practitioner in Rockhampton before deciding to pursue his passion for surgery, becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons.
Wylie took his commitment to the Hippocratic oath seriously and worked tirelessly to save lives. He was always exploring new techniques to improve the outcomes for his patients, including doing a stint as a ‘flying surgeon’, providing medical care to remote cattle stations in Central Queensland. During his almost forty-year career as a surgeon, he helped countless patients, often accepting little or no payment from those in need. He became lifelong friends with some of those whose lives he had saved.
One of his proudest moments was when, after a fifty-year struggle for his medical research to be recognised, his ground-breaking research into Gastro Hypothermia for Major Haematemesis was finally published, with the support of Professor Barry Marshall, Nobel Laureate in Medicine.
Wylie moved from Rockhampton to Brisbane with his wife Erika Hepburn (nee Dobberkau), who he married in 2009. During his retirement, Wylie continued to work with Professor Barry Marshall and the University of Western Australia, creating two perpetual medical scholarships, one in the name of his first wife Sybil (deceased) who he married in 1954.
Wylie is survived by wife Erika and his two children Tim and Helen. Wylie and Sybil’s third child Peter tragically passed away in 1999.
