Ross was born on 19 September 1922, the second of three children of school principal, Percy and Mildred Burton. Ross began his schooling in Opotiki and followed on to Brixton Road School in Mt Eden, Auckland. He showed a high level of intelligence at an early age and went through school a year ahead of his peers. This led to him spending 3 years in the 6th form at Mt Albert Grammar where he played tennis, cricket, and First XI soccer and enjoyed harriers. There was a plus to this extra schooling as he was able to gain a University Scholarship in his second 6th form year and he was placed second overall in New Zealand in his 3rd year when sitting, although this was only academic due to it already having been achieved in the previous year. This, together with his subsequent junior and senior scholarships helped fund his later training at medical school. On leaving Mt Albert Grammar, Ross did a preliminary year at Auckland University prior to entry to Otago Medical School where he spent 5 years. There he became an anatomy demonstrator and did a postgraduate year as a teacher in the Anatomy Department. Towards the end of World War 2 Ross was back in Auckland working as a house surgeon at the Mater and then Middlemore Hospital. In 1949, Ross went to London where he studied for his Fellowship at the Royal College of Surgeons and had no difficulty in passing his Primary Fellowship and final FRCS (Eng). He also spent time at Cambridge where he attained qualifications in radiotherapy and played golf at that stage achieving every golfer's dream of a hole-in-one! Returning to Auckland at the end of 1954 Ross began working as a radiotherapist at Auckland Hospital. At the end of 1959 he assumed the responsibility of Head of the Department and worked through the traumatic years during \"The Brych Saga\" and Brych Inquiry which was regrettably supported by some of the leading academic doctors in some specialities in Auckland and made running the Radiotherapy Department very difficult in that era when orthodox radiotherapy was being challenged. Subsequent to that period I became involved in chemotherapy and the surgical techniques of organ perfusion with high dosage of chemotherapeutic drugs which became an orthodox treatment carried out under special conditions with tourniquet isolation of the tumour bearing area so that could receive a high dosage of chemotherapeutic drug. Ross's expertise was seriously required in this era and his experience and advice of paramount importance to his patients and his colleagues. As a surgeon with an interest in these techniques Ross and I had many professional discussions and got to know each other at a professional level. It is of interest that we met up in London when we were each doing locum work at the Royal Northern Hospital in Holloway Road, Ross as Casualty Officer and I as Anaesthetist. Each out of his chosen specialty. I was summoned to the A & E Department to give an anaesthetic to set a Colles fracture of the wrist. Ross said \"this is ridiculous! I'm training to be a radiotherapist and you're training to be a general surgeon! Why don't you do the setting of the fracture and I'll do the anaesthetic?\" My reply was prompt and definitive. \"Not on your life! I'm doing what I was appointed to do and advise you to do the same. If anything went wrong we would have no defence and we'd be up before the Medical Council!\" Commonsense and security prevailed and all went well for both of us. Ross then went off for a holiday in Europe and I continued with my locum duties. When I returned to Auckland as a surgical specialist at Middemore Hospital then Greenlane Hospital we met up again and I was able to consult Ross for my patients from both these hospitals and receive a good opinion with great confidence. Ross by then was a very experienced radiotherapist and many patients in their era would have been grateful for his wise and knowledgeable advice, skilful care, and friendly personal manner. As Head of Department of Radiotherapy in Auckland Ross attended the Cancer Clinic on a weekly basis to advise the consultants from all specialities on the best treatment for their patients with malignant disease. His wise counsel was valued and doctors got good advice whenever they required it where X-ray therapy was considered. In 1976 he worked at St Margaret's Private Hospital Outpatients treating superficial lesions suitable for local radiotherapy; here he also had many appreciative patients who received good results. As the Auckland population grew the Cancer Clinic became increasingly busy and Ross had to increase his clinical staff to manage the load. Eventually when he retired in 1987 he was succeeded by an English radiotherapist, Professor Probert, who continued to run the Department with modern equipment imported from Europe and new techniques in keeping with the times. Ross's interests in retirement were of course his family, playing golf at the Whitford Country Club, and his Whitford farmlet where he farmed a small mob of sheep and had a family dog who kept guard and was a friend of the grandchildren whenever they visited. Keith Ewan wrote this obituary.

Ross was born on 19 September 1922, the second of three children of school principal, Percy and Mildred Burton. Ross began his schooling in Opotiki and followed on to Brixton Road School in Mt Eden, Auckland. He showed a high level of intelligence at an early age and went through school a year ahead of his peers. This led to him spending 3 years in the 6th form at Mt Albert Grammar where he played tennis, cricket, and First XI soccer and enjoyed harriers. There was a plus to this extra schooling as he was able to gain a University Scholarship in his second 6th form year and he was placed second overall in New Zealand in his 3rd year when sitting, although this was only academic due to it already having been achieved in the previous year. This, together with his subsequent junior and senior scholarships helped fund his later training at medical school. On leaving Mt Albert Grammar, Ross did a preliminary year at Auckland University prior to entry to Otago Medical School where he spent 5 years. There he became an anatomy demonstrator and did a postgraduate year as a teacher in the Anatomy Department. Towards the end of World War 2 Ross was back in Auckland working as a house surgeon at the Mater and then Middlemore Hospital. In 1949, Ross went to London where he studied for his Fellowship at the Royal College of Surgeons and had no difficulty in passing his Primary Fellowship and final FRCS (Eng). He also spent time at Cambridge where he attained qualifications in radiotherapy and played golf at that stage achieving every golfer's dream of a hole-in-one! Returning to Auckland at the end of 1954 Ross began working as a radiotherapist at Auckland Hospital. At the end of 1959 he assumed the responsibility of Head of the Department and worked through the traumatic years during \"The Brych Saga\" and Brych Inquiry which was regrettably supported by some of the leading academic doctors in some specialities in Auckland and made running the Radiotherapy Department very difficult in that era when orthodox radiotherapy was being challenged. Subsequent to that period I became involved in chemotherapy and the surgical techniques of organ perfusion with high dosage of chemotherapeutic drugs which became an orthodox treatment carried out under special conditions with tourniquet isolation of the tumour bearing area so that could receive a high dosage of chemotherapeutic drug. Ross's expertise was seriously required in this era and his experience and advice of paramount importance to his patients and his colleagues. As a surgeon with an interest in these techniques Ross and I had many professional discussions and got to know each other at a professional level. It is of interest that we met up in London when we were each doing locum work at the Royal Northern Hospital in Holloway Road, Ross as Casualty Officer and I as Anaesthetist. Each out of his chosen specialty. I was summoned to the A & E Department to give an anaesthetic to set a Colles fracture of the wrist. Ross said \"this is ridiculous! I'm training to be a radiotherapist and you're training to be a general surgeon! Why don't you do the setting of the fracture and I'll do the anaesthetic?\" My reply was prompt and definitive. \"Not on your life! I'm doing what I was appointed to do and advise you to do the same. If anything went wrong we would have no defence and we'd be up before the Medical Council!\" Commonsense and security prevailed and all went well for both of us. Ross then went off for a holiday in Europe and I continued with my locum duties. When I returned to Auckland as a surgical specialist at Middemore Hospital then Greenlane Hospital we met up again and I was able to consult Ross for my patients from both these hospitals and receive a good opinion with great confidence. Ross by then was a very experienced radiotherapist and many patients in their era would have been grateful for his wise and knowledgeable advice, skilful care, and friendly personal manner. As Head of Department of Radiotherapy in Auckland Ross attended the Cancer Clinic on a weekly basis to advise the consultants from all specialities on the best treatment for their patients with malignant disease. His wise counsel was valued and doctors got good advice whenever they required it where X-ray therapy was considered. In 1976 he worked at St Margaret's Private Hospital Outpatients treating superficial lesions suitable for local radiotherapy; here he also had many appreciative patients who received good results. As the Auckland population grew the Cancer Clinic became increasingly busy and Ross had to increase his clinical staff to manage the load. Eventually when he retired in 1987 he was succeeded by an English radiotherapist, Professor Probert, who continued to run the Department with modern equipment imported from Europe and new techniques in keeping with the times. Ross's interests in retirement were of course his family, playing golf at the Whitford Country Club, and his Whitford farmlet where he farmed a small mob of sheep and had a family dog who kept guard and was a friend of the grandchildren whenever they visited. Keith Ewan wrote this obituary.