Ruthven Blackburn
Emeritus Professor Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Ruthven Bickerton Blackburn AC was a professor of medicine at the University of Sydney.
His father was Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Charles Bickerton Blackburn KCMG, OBE, an Australian university chancellor and physician.
During World War II Ruthven was Commanding and Senior Physician of the Land Headquarters Medical Research Unit, Australian Army Medical Corps.
In 1940 he married Nell. They had two daughters, Susan Ann and Sandra.
In 1968 he married colleague and distinguished asthma researcher Professor Ann Woolcock AO FAA FRACP. The couple raised two sons, Simon and Angus.
In 2006 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in recognition of his service to the development of academic medicine and medical education in Australia.
He died on 12 April 2016, just short of his 103rd birthday.
