1947-2024

It is with heavy hearts that we acknowledge the passing of Dr David Ronald Woodhouse. A beloved husband and father who passed away on 6 December 2024 after a valiant battle with cancer.

Born 10 February 1947 at King George V Memorial Hospital in Sydney, Dr Woodhouse spent his early years growing up in Kensington and attended primary school at Daceyville Public School. He later moved to Botany as a teenager and was selected to attend Sydney Boys High School from 1959 to1964. This was a school he loved dearly and that harnessed and directed his growing intellect within the society he would later serve.

Dr Woodhouse resisted the class-based pressures of growing up in 1950s Australia, which encouraged him to pursue trades or the army. Instead he broke the mould and strove to become a doctor—a calling he felt deeply from an early age.

Dr Woodhouse attended the University of Sydney Medical School from 1965 to 1970, a time of his life and university career that he cherished. He was appointed to his internship at the Sydney Hospital in 1971 and undertook his senior residency there in 1972, during which time he also seconded to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

In 1973, Dr Woodhouse then became a Junior Obstetric Registrar at Crown Street Women’s Hospital, which included a secondment to Liverpool Hospital and Crown Street’s Pathology Department. He then become an obstetrics and gynaecology registrar at Crown Street from 1974 to 1977 which included his Professorial registrarship in 1977. During this period, he established the Fetal Medicine Unit and helped establish the first non-hospital Birthing Centre in New South Wales at the hospital.

Dr Woodhouse travelled to the United Kingdom where he was a registrar in Norfolk and Norwich Hospital from 1978–1979 and Senior Registrar in St Mary’s Hospital, Portsmouth in 1979.

Dr Woodhouse entered private obstetrics practice from 1980 to1995 during which time he was also a visiting obstetrician and gynaecologist at Liverpool Hospital, Chairman of Liverpool Hospital’s Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department, Founder and Director of Liverpool Hospital’s Menopause Clinic and Vice President of the Australian Pharmaceutical Physician’s Association.

During and following private practice, Dr Woodhouse also held various Director roles at pharmaceutical companies including Upjohn Pty Ltd (1989–1995), Pharmacia & Upjohn (1995– 1999), Pharmacia Pty Ltd (1999–2003), Serono Australia Pty Ltd (2003–2005) and Organon Australia Pty Ltd (2005 to 2008).

Dr Woodhouse returned to private consulting at GNP Australia (2008–2009) and at the Australian Menopause Clinic, where he practised as a consultant gynaecologist from 2009 until his retirement in 2020.

During his illustrious and profound medical career, Dr Woodhouse also pursued further higher education, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts (1986, University of Sydney), majoring in Italian, a Master’s in Reproductive Medicine (2004, University of Western Sydney), and a Master in Bioethics (2017, University of Sydney), among other qualifications.

Dr Woodhouse provided dedicated service to RANZCOG from 1989 to 2002, during which time he served as:

• Secretary, NSW State Committee (1989–1991)
• Chairman, NSW State Committee (1991–1994)
• Chairman, NSW State Reference Committee (RANZCOG/RACGP, elected 1992)
• NSW representative to the Federal Council RANZCOG (1992–2002)
• Member of various committees, including Case Mix, Asia and Oceanic Affairs, Continuing Education, and Joint Consultative Committees
• Chairman, Health Care Committee (1994–1998)
• Senior Vice President (1998–2002)
• Chairman, NHMRC Working Party on Guidelines for Use of RhD Immunoglobulin in Obstetrics (1994–2003)
• Member, Board of Management of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (1998–2002)
• Chairman, Fellowship Legal Appeals Committee (2002–2003)

Dr Woodhouse was also a prolific writer of numerous unpublished poetry and books as well as adept in Latin, playing the banjo, ballroom dancing and was a highly skilled watercolour artist.

Dr Woodhouse was a man of deeply held honour, dignity, ethics, profound intelligence, with a spirit of inquiry and strength.

He leaves this world far better than when he found it following a life of service not only to his family but to his patients and his beloved RANZCOG. Dr Woodhouse welcomed countless lives into this world as an obstetrician and championed the causes of women in healthcare as a gynaecologist.

Dr Woodhouse is survived by his loving wife Catherine, his devoted children Ronald, John, Evan, Meaghan and Justin, and his cherished grandchildren, Sophia, Patricia, Evelyn, Ruby, Wren and Hendrix.

He lives on through his family who deeply miss him.

Vivere aeternum per familiam.

If you would like to reach out to the Woodhouse family for any reason you can do so via his son, Justin Woodhouse at [email protected]