Dr David GAME:
President of WONCA 1983-86

A tribute to David Game from Prof Michael Kidd, WONCA President.

WONCA lost one of our founders and past presidents with the recent death of Dr David Game MBBS, AO, KCSJ, FRACGP, FRCGP, MCFPC, FHKCGP(Hon), at his home in Adelaide in Australia, aged 89 years.

David was one of the organisers of World Family Medicine Conference, held in Melbourne in 1972, where 18 national colleges and academies of family medicine / general practice came together to establish WONCA, our World Organization of Family Doctors. At that meeting David became WONCA's first Secretary/Treasurer, a position he held until 1980 when he was elected as president-elect. David served as WONCA president from 1983-1986. He continued his service to global family medicine as the editor of WONCA News for 28 years. David was also one of the founding members, and one of the early presidents, of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

David was a dear friend and colleague to many people across Australia and around the world. He was a regular attendee at our WONCA World Council meetings, sharing his wisdom and demonstrating his continuing care and passion for WONCA and its members.

I first met David at a WONCA Asia Pacific Regional Conference held in Indonesia in 1990. We were staying at the same hotel and David took me under his wing as a young Australian family doctor travelling on my own, and made sure I was well looked after and introduced me to many colleagues from around the world. David later became a generous source of wise advice and support in my time following in his footsteps, first as president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and now as president of WONCA.

WONCA has lost a wonderful supporter who was present at the foundation of our global organisation, and all who loved him have lost a dear friend.

We will mourn his passing, and treasure his memory.

Michael Kidd
WONCA President
WONCA News May 2015

A tribute to David Game from Prof Wes Fabb, former WONCA CEO.

We were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of our dear friend and colleague David Game. It marks the end of an era in WONCA.

David was associated with WONCA from the outset. Although I have known him for around 50 years, it was during the organization of the Fifth WONCA World Conference held in Melbourne in 1972 that I got to know him well. He, Monty Kent-Hughes and I met at RACGP Faculty headquarters in Melbourne weekly for more months than I can remember to arrange that seminal conference, at which WONCA was formally inaugurated. David became the first Secretary/Treasurer, a position he held until 1980 when he became President Elect, at which time I succeeded him.

In those early days he ran the WONCA secretariat from his home in Adelaide. He served WONCAin many ways for countless years, and regularly attended WONCA conferences. This was but part of his busy life. Apart from conducting a general practice in the Adelaide suburb of Payneham throughout his clinical career, he was prominent in the RACGP and its President for three years, and was also heavily involved in local medical and church organizations, with which he continued after his retirement from medical practice.

I stayed many times at David and Pat’s large family home in Royston Park when visiting Adelaide, and Marian and I have stayed several times at the new home David himself designed in the same suburb. It was sad for him that his dear wife Pat became ill and died not long after moving there.

David was a prodigious worker. There seemed never to be a day that he did not have a meeting or engagement. When the Order of Australia, of which he was an Officer (AO), had its annual conference in Adelaide, he was one of the organizers. He devoted a lot of his time to his Anglican Church and its nursing homes and care facilities.

He was a highly respected doctor on the Adelaide scene and for some time was an administrator at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. He was well known too on the local and national scene in the RACGP and the AMA.

It is hard to imagine that he could have packed more into his 89 years than he did. It was a great privilege to be able to pay tribute to him and all he had done for Wonca on the occasion of his 80th birthday, a large celebration in the Adelaide botanical gardens.

Above all, David was a loving husband to Pat, a caring and generous father to Ann, Philip, Timothy and Ruth, a much loved father in law and grandfather, and a kind, generous, caring and hospitable friend to Marian and me, and his many friends in WONCA, here and around the world.

WONCA has lost a wonderful supporter who was present at its foundation, and all who loved him have lost a dear friend.

Wes and Marian Fabb

Dr Game was interviewed by the current WONCA editor in 2012 – see interview here.