Healing was the core activity of Michael Wisdom, as it is for every general practitioner who swears the Hippocratic oath.
Beyond clinical medicine, however, he embraced more diverse ground than most.
Patients’ appointments were an opportunity for discussion, lightened by humour and snippets of history.
Waterloo was one prescription for conversation. In 2015, the 200th anniversary of the battle where British forces had a decisive victory over the French, he visited the site in Belgium.
His friend, Bill Carroll, a professor of neurology, was with him to tread the ground where victors and vanquished had died. “As we walked the battlefield and its surrounds,” he recalls, “Michael was as familiar with the landmarks as if he had grown up there.”
The European visit was a chance for contemplation of the cost of human conflict.
Waterloo, a landmark in often painful relations between Europe’s two greatest powers, has been well covered by many authors, including Sir Arthur Bryant and Bernard Cornwell, two of Dr Wisdom’s favourites.
In the life of Michael, humour and history were combined on a much less bloody stage — the perennial attempts of the Melbourne Football Club to emulate its wonderful dominance of the Australian football scene during the 1950s.
Dr Wisdom, as a proud Victorian and intensely loyal to the team known as the Demons, grew up in the Victorian capital when Melbourne won a record five premierships in six years (1955-60). They were to win one more flag, in 1964, but never since then. The award of wooden spoons added to the frustration.
The “Demonisation” was clearly contagious in the Wisdom family. Michael’s younger son, Jeremy, mentioned in a eulogy his own “incapability to sit still in the final quarter of a Melbourne game.” The older son, Tom, spoke fondly of family holidays at Rottnest, thousands of kilometres from where their father had first kicked a football and excelled at school and university enough to become a doctor.
Michael John Wisdom was born on April 1, 1949 in the bayside suburb of Middle Brighton, one of three children of Helen (nee Plante) and John Wisdom. Michael attended Melbourne Grammar School and The University of Melbourne.
In 1973, the year he turned 24, he moved to WA for an internship at Royal Perth Hospital. While completing an orthopaedic surgery term at Shenton Park rehabilitation centre, he met Jacqueline Samson, a physiotherapist.
They married in 1974, and Michael spent the rest of his life in WA. He made friends easily, especially with teammates in The University of Western Australia’s football club.
Professor Carroll recalls that Michael played for the F-grade side, affectionately known as “F Troop”. “Michael displayed sufficient unmistakable glimpses of a classic centre-half-forward to win the Stainless Steel Gorgonzola Award,” he says. Any Victorian import was especially welcome to join the legion of UWA players opposed to all aspects of Collingwood, Melbourne’s fierce rivals in the then Victorian Football League, 15 years before these two teams joined the new Australian Football League.
Jacqueline says that after her husband finished his RPH internship, he joined the Southern Clinic in South Perth, where he remained for 45 years until retirement at the end of last September.
Colleagues and patients have praised Dr Wisdom’s “competence and compassion as one of Perth’s best GPs, maintaining and even elevating the reputation of the Southern Clinic, serving time as the Western Australian Cricket Association’s doctor and GP representative on the Locum Board.” In several cases, successive generations of families came to see him for advice, reassurance and perhaps a reference to dislikeable politicians.
His daughter, Kit, worked with him at the clinic for several years.
“Daily exchanges peppered my time there,” she says, “where all sides of Dad were witnessed, from irritable, impatient doctor, to endlessly incorrigible, cheeky co-worker, hands-in-his-pockets generous listener, soundboard, and wise guide. He was so loved by patients and the Southern Clinic community. To them, he was reliable, witty, kind, and generous of heart and mind.”
Away from work, wine was an enduring interest. Six extended trips to Europe, between 1998 and 2015, often included research of varieties. It had taken a determined friend, John Hassell, to persuade him and Jacqueline to visit Europe, after which they behaved like regular Europhiles.
“Avid collector as he was, in Italy he bought more chess sets than anyone could use, and coined the phrase: ‘A day in Italy without ice cream is a day wasted’. Roman ruins in southern Spain were another highlight.”
Closer to home, Michael took delight in creative gardening and listening to music from his boyhood, such as the Kingston Trio, as well as Gordon Lightfoot, Paul Kelly and Simon and Garfunkel. Don McLean’s legendary number, American Pie, with the volume dangerously high, will always remind his children of lifts to sporting events.
Dr Wisdom died on December 23, 2020, survived by Jacqueline, Kit, Tom and Jeremy, six grandchildren; and his brother, Andrew.
The family cherish amused scepticism about Michael’s claims to have been a star sportsman in boyhood. One solution was to buy him a T-shirt proclaiming, “The older I get, the better I was.”
By Patrick Cornish
Beyond clinical medicine, however, he embraced more diverse ground than most.
Patients’ appointments were an opportunity for discussion, lightened by humour and snippets of history.
Waterloo was one prescription for conversation. In 2015, the 200th anniversary of the battle where British forces had a decisive victory over the French, he visited the site in Belgium.
His friend, Bill Carroll, a professor of neurology, was with him to tread the ground where victors and vanquished had died. “As we walked the battlefield and its surrounds,” he recalls, “Michael was as familiar with the landmarks as if he had grown up there.”
The European visit was a chance for contemplation of the cost of human conflict.
Waterloo, a landmark in often painful relations between Europe’s two greatest powers, has been well covered by many authors, including Sir Arthur Bryant and Bernard Cornwell, two of Dr Wisdom’s favourites.
In the life of Michael, humour and history were combined on a much less bloody stage — the perennial attempts of the Melbourne Football Club to emulate its wonderful dominance of the Australian football scene during the 1950s.
Dr Wisdom, as a proud Victorian and intensely loyal to the team known as the Demons, grew up in the Victorian capital when Melbourne won a record five premierships in six years (1955-60). They were to win one more flag, in 1964, but never since then. The award of wooden spoons added to the frustration.
The “Demonisation” was clearly contagious in the Wisdom family. Michael’s younger son, Jeremy, mentioned in a eulogy his own “incapability to sit still in the final quarter of a Melbourne game.” The older son, Tom, spoke fondly of family holidays at Rottnest, thousands of kilometres from where their father had first kicked a football and excelled at school and university enough to become a doctor.
Michael John Wisdom was born on April 1, 1949 in the bayside suburb of Middle Brighton, one of three children of Helen (nee Plante) and John Wisdom. Michael attended Melbourne Grammar School and The University of Melbourne.
In 1973, the year he turned 24, he moved to WA for an internship at Royal Perth Hospital. While completing an orthopaedic surgery term at Shenton Park rehabilitation centre, he met Jacqueline Samson, a physiotherapist.
They married in 1974, and Michael spent the rest of his life in WA. He made friends easily, especially with teammates in The University of Western Australia’s football club.
Professor Carroll recalls that Michael played for the F-grade side, affectionately known as “F Troop”. “Michael displayed sufficient unmistakable glimpses of a classic centre-half-forward to win the Stainless Steel Gorgonzola Award,” he says. Any Victorian import was especially welcome to join the legion of UWA players opposed to all aspects of Collingwood, Melbourne’s fierce rivals in the then Victorian Football League, 15 years before these two teams joined the new Australian Football League.
Jacqueline says that after her husband finished his RPH internship, he joined the Southern Clinic in South Perth, where he remained for 45 years until retirement at the end of last September.
Colleagues and patients have praised Dr Wisdom’s “competence and compassion as one of Perth’s best GPs, maintaining and even elevating the reputation of the Southern Clinic, serving time as the Western Australian Cricket Association’s doctor and GP representative on the Locum Board.” In several cases, successive generations of families came to see him for advice, reassurance and perhaps a reference to dislikeable politicians.
His daughter, Kit, worked with him at the clinic for several years.
“Daily exchanges peppered my time there,” she says, “where all sides of Dad were witnessed, from irritable, impatient doctor, to endlessly incorrigible, cheeky co-worker, hands-in-his-pockets generous listener, soundboard, and wise guide. He was so loved by patients and the Southern Clinic community. To them, he was reliable, witty, kind, and generous of heart and mind.”
Away from work, wine was an enduring interest. Six extended trips to Europe, between 1998 and 2015, often included research of varieties. It had taken a determined friend, John Hassell, to persuade him and Jacqueline to visit Europe, after which they behaved like regular Europhiles.
“Avid collector as he was, in Italy he bought more chess sets than anyone could use, and coined the phrase: ‘A day in Italy without ice cream is a day wasted’. Roman ruins in southern Spain were another highlight.”
Closer to home, Michael took delight in creative gardening and listening to music from his boyhood, such as the Kingston Trio, as well as Gordon Lightfoot, Paul Kelly and Simon and Garfunkel. Don McLean’s legendary number, American Pie, with the volume dangerously high, will always remind his children of lifts to sporting events.
Dr Wisdom died on December 23, 2020, survived by Jacqueline, Kit, Tom and Jeremy, six grandchildren; and his brother, Andrew.
The family cherish amused scepticism about Michael’s claims to have been a star sportsman in boyhood. One solution was to buy him a T-shirt proclaiming, “The older I get, the better I was.”
By Patrick Cornish
Healing was the core activity of Michael Wisdom, as it is for every general practitioner who swears the Hippocratic oath.
Beyond clinical medicine, however, he embraced more diverse ground than most.
Patients’ appointments were an opportunity for discussion, lightened by humour and snippets of history.
Waterloo was one prescription for conversation. In 2015, the 200th anniversary of the battle where British forces had a decisive victory over the French, he visited the site in Belgium.
His friend, Bill Carroll, a professor of neurology, was with him to tread the ground where victors and vanquished had died. “As we walked the battlefield and its surrounds,” he recalls, “Michael was as familiar with the landmarks as if he had grown up there.”
The European visit was a chance for contemplation of the cost of human conflict.
Waterloo, a landmark in often painful relations between Europe’s two greatest powers, has been well covered by many authors, including Sir Arthur Bryant and Bernard Cornwell, two of Dr Wisdom’s favourites.
In the life of Michael, humour and history were combined on a much less bloody stage — the perennial attempts of the Melbourne Football Club to emulate its wonderful dominance of the Australian football scene during the 1950s.
Dr Wisdom, as a proud Victorian and intensely loyal to the team known as the Demons, grew up in the Victorian capital when Melbourne won a record five premierships in six years (1955-60). They were to win one more flag, in 1964, but never since then. The award of wooden spoons added to the frustration.
The “Demonisation” was clearly contagious in the Wisdom family. Michael’s younger son, Jeremy, mentioned in a eulogy his own “incapability to sit still in the final quarter of a Melbourne game.” The older son, Tom, spoke fondly of family holidays at Rottnest, thousands of kilometres from where their father had first kicked a football and excelled at school and university enough to become a doctor.
Michael John Wisdom was born on April 1, 1949 in the bayside suburb of Middle Brighton, one of three children of Helen (nee Plante) and John Wisdom. Michael attended Melbourne Grammar School and The University of Melbourne.
In 1973, the year he turned 24, he moved to WA for an internship at Royal Perth Hospital. While completing an orthopaedic surgery term at Shenton Park rehabilitation centre, he met Jacqueline Samson, a physiotherapist.
They married in 1974, and Michael spent the rest of his life in WA. He made friends easily, especially with teammates in The University of Western Australia’s football club.
Professor Carroll recalls that Michael played for the F-grade side, affectionately known as “F Troop”. “Michael displayed sufficient unmistakable glimpses of a classic centre-half-forward to win the Stainless Steel Gorgonzola Award,” he says. Any Victorian import was especially welcome to join the legion of UWA players opposed to all aspects of Collingwood, Melbourne’s fierce rivals in the then Victorian Football League, 15 years before these two teams joined the new Australian Football League.
Jacqueline says that after her husband finished his RPH internship, he joined the Southern Clinic in South Perth, where he remained for 45 years until retirement at the end of last September.
Colleagues and patients have praised Dr Wisdom’s “competence and compassion as one of Perth’s best GPs, maintaining and even elevating the reputation of the Southern Clinic, serving time as the Western Australian Cricket Association’s doctor and GP representative on the Locum Board.” In several cases, successive generations of families came to see him for advice, reassurance and perhaps a reference to dislikeable politicians.
His daughter, Kit, worked with him at the clinic for several years.
“Daily exchanges peppered my time there,” she says, “where all sides of Dad were witnessed, from irritable, impatient doctor, to endlessly incorrigible, cheeky co-worker, hands-in-his-pockets generous listener, soundboard, and wise guide. He was so loved by patients and the Southern Clinic community. To them, he was reliable, witty, kind, and generous of heart and mind.”
Away from work, wine was an enduring interest. Six extended trips to Europe, between 1998 and 2015, often included research of varieties. It had taken a determined friend, John Hassell, to persuade him and Jacqueline to visit Europe, after which they behaved like regular Europhiles.
“Avid collector as he was, in Italy he bought more chess sets than anyone could use, and coined the phrase: ‘A day in Italy without ice cream is a day wasted’. Roman ruins in southern Spain were another highlight.”
Closer to home, Michael took delight in creative gardening and listening to music from his boyhood, such as the Kingston Trio, as well as Gordon Lightfoot, Paul Kelly and Simon and Garfunkel. Don McLean’s legendary number, American Pie, with the volume dangerously high, will always remind his children of lifts to sporting events.
Dr Wisdom died on December 23, 2020, survived by Jacqueline, Kit, Tom and Jeremy, six grandchildren; and his brother, Andrew.
The family cherish amused scepticism about Michael’s claims to have been a star sportsman in boyhood. One solution was to buy him a T-shirt proclaiming, “The older I get, the better I was.”
By Patrick Cornish
Beyond clinical medicine, however, he embraced more diverse ground than most.
Patients’ appointments were an opportunity for discussion, lightened by humour and snippets of history.
Waterloo was one prescription for conversation. In 2015, the 200th anniversary of the battle where British forces had a decisive victory over the French, he visited the site in Belgium.
His friend, Bill Carroll, a professor of neurology, was with him to tread the ground where victors and vanquished had died. “As we walked the battlefield and its surrounds,” he recalls, “Michael was as familiar with the landmarks as if he had grown up there.”
The European visit was a chance for contemplation of the cost of human conflict.
Waterloo, a landmark in often painful relations between Europe’s two greatest powers, has been well covered by many authors, including Sir Arthur Bryant and Bernard Cornwell, two of Dr Wisdom’s favourites.
In the life of Michael, humour and history were combined on a much less bloody stage — the perennial attempts of the Melbourne Football Club to emulate its wonderful dominance of the Australian football scene during the 1950s.
Dr Wisdom, as a proud Victorian and intensely loyal to the team known as the Demons, grew up in the Victorian capital when Melbourne won a record five premierships in six years (1955-60). They were to win one more flag, in 1964, but never since then. The award of wooden spoons added to the frustration.
The “Demonisation” was clearly contagious in the Wisdom family. Michael’s younger son, Jeremy, mentioned in a eulogy his own “incapability to sit still in the final quarter of a Melbourne game.” The older son, Tom, spoke fondly of family holidays at Rottnest, thousands of kilometres from where their father had first kicked a football and excelled at school and university enough to become a doctor.
Michael John Wisdom was born on April 1, 1949 in the bayside suburb of Middle Brighton, one of three children of Helen (nee Plante) and John Wisdom. Michael attended Melbourne Grammar School and The University of Melbourne.
In 1973, the year he turned 24, he moved to WA for an internship at Royal Perth Hospital. While completing an orthopaedic surgery term at Shenton Park rehabilitation centre, he met Jacqueline Samson, a physiotherapist.
They married in 1974, and Michael spent the rest of his life in WA. He made friends easily, especially with teammates in The University of Western Australia’s football club.
Professor Carroll recalls that Michael played for the F-grade side, affectionately known as “F Troop”. “Michael displayed sufficient unmistakable glimpses of a classic centre-half-forward to win the Stainless Steel Gorgonzola Award,” he says. Any Victorian import was especially welcome to join the legion of UWA players opposed to all aspects of Collingwood, Melbourne’s fierce rivals in the then Victorian Football League, 15 years before these two teams joined the new Australian Football League.
Jacqueline says that after her husband finished his RPH internship, he joined the Southern Clinic in South Perth, where he remained for 45 years until retirement at the end of last September.
Colleagues and patients have praised Dr Wisdom’s “competence and compassion as one of Perth’s best GPs, maintaining and even elevating the reputation of the Southern Clinic, serving time as the Western Australian Cricket Association’s doctor and GP representative on the Locum Board.” In several cases, successive generations of families came to see him for advice, reassurance and perhaps a reference to dislikeable politicians.
His daughter, Kit, worked with him at the clinic for several years.
“Daily exchanges peppered my time there,” she says, “where all sides of Dad were witnessed, from irritable, impatient doctor, to endlessly incorrigible, cheeky co-worker, hands-in-his-pockets generous listener, soundboard, and wise guide. He was so loved by patients and the Southern Clinic community. To them, he was reliable, witty, kind, and generous of heart and mind.”
Away from work, wine was an enduring interest. Six extended trips to Europe, between 1998 and 2015, often included research of varieties. It had taken a determined friend, John Hassell, to persuade him and Jacqueline to visit Europe, after which they behaved like regular Europhiles.
“Avid collector as he was, in Italy he bought more chess sets than anyone could use, and coined the phrase: ‘A day in Italy without ice cream is a day wasted’. Roman ruins in southern Spain were another highlight.”
Closer to home, Michael took delight in creative gardening and listening to music from his boyhood, such as the Kingston Trio, as well as Gordon Lightfoot, Paul Kelly and Simon and Garfunkel. Don McLean’s legendary number, American Pie, with the volume dangerously high, will always remind his children of lifts to sporting events.
Dr Wisdom died on December 23, 2020, survived by Jacqueline, Kit, Tom and Jeremy, six grandchildren; and his brother, Andrew.
The family cherish amused scepticism about Michael’s claims to have been a star sportsman in boyhood. One solution was to buy him a T-shirt proclaiming, “The older I get, the better I was.”
By Patrick Cornish
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