John was born in Yugoslavia in 1932 and moved with his family to Manjimup, Western Australia in 1940. After studying medicine at Melbourne University, he set up permanently as a general practitioner in Kununoppin, 265 km northeast of Perth.
The remoteness of the practice meant that John had no ready access to specialists and had to be the surgeon, obstetrician, paediatrician and general practitioner, dealing with accident and emergency services. In extreme cases he referred patients to specialists in Perth, but soon used his networks and personality to develop a new concept of encouraging many specialists to come to the 'bush'. He enticed an orthopaedic surgeon, an obstetrician/gynaecologist and a specialist physician to make regular visits to the Kununoppin area.
He set new standards of care for Aboriginal patients and the elderly, and was active in advancing the ambulance service in much of the eastern wheat belt. During his long career, medical services in rural Western Australia changed constantly as populations of country towns diminished and medicine itself became more specialised. He relentlessly fought to ensure that country people were not disadvantaged by these changes, The quality of service in the bush, now and into the future, has been greatly influenced by the example that John has set.
John’s many career achievements include delivering 1500 babies in Kununoppin; receiving an OAM after 25 years of service at Kununoppin and surrounding districts; recipient of the AMA of WA award for Outstanding service to medicine in June 2004; and inducted into the Royal Agricultural Society of WA Hall of Fame in April 2007 for his services to rural WA. He is involved in the Country Medical Foundation and was involved in setting up the medical scholarship for medical students. John officially retired in October 2008.