Robert Francis O'Shea

March 23, 1925 - January 31, 2005

Prepared by Humphry Cramond, who has been a friend of Bob since their days at Nudgee.

Bob O’Shea was one of the greatest clinicians and visionary teachers of this generation. He also possessed an extraordinary breadth of intellect and scholarship which included medical history and other historical studies.

His father, also named Robert was a Nudgee Old Boy as was his brother, John and sons, Paul, Alex and Geoffrey. He was Dux of the College in 1943 and won an Open Scholarship to the University of Queensland. On graduation in Medicine in 1949, he was awarded First Class Honours and was the recipient of the William Nathaniel Robertson Medal and the Harold Plant Memorial Prize – an unusual ‘double’.

He was on the full-time staff of the then Brisbane Hospital from 1950 to 1954 and gained his membership to the Royal Australian College of Physicians in 1953. In 1966 he was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and in the same year the College awarded him a Travelling Fellowship. He had entered private practice as a Specialist Physician and Cardiologist in 1954 while maintaining his Brisbane Hospital role until retirement in 1990.

In 1971 he set up Brisbane’s first Coronary Hospital and later the first private unit at the Holy Spirit Hospital. The American College of Cardiology honoured him by electing him to its Fellowship in 1980. He was elected as Councillor of the Queensland Branch of the Australian Medical Association in 1960 where he exhibited his insight and concern for the health and welfare of his patients and the status of the profession in the community. In 1973 he became President of the Queensland Branch.

When Cyclone Tracey destroyed Darwin he found time to organize and lead the Relief Medical Team. In 1976 the AMA with the Award of Fellowship honoured him. After completion of his Presidential term he continued to work for the AMA on several committees. He also found time to complete in 1978, a degree of Bachelor of Arts, Majoring in Classics and Ancient History.

In 1994 – the Centenary year of the Queensland Branch of the AMA, I asked Bob to write the story of pre-Federation Medicine in Queensland. The result was a work of true scholarship entitled ‘Medical Organizations in Colonial Queensland which was published by the Branch.

Bob O’Shea was indeed a great scholar who shared his wealth of knowledge with others. Over more than half a century we shared many interests and the care of mutual patients. He was a truly wise medical practitioner whose lasting memorial will be the younger physicians he influenced.

There was no limit to his loyalty and generosity to his old school. When the chapel was being refurbished he donated the beautiful colonnades to house the Madonna. His strong faith was reinforced by his intellect. Above all he was a loving husband of his wife ,Gabrielle and father of their children.