Gerard (Gerry) Joyce (SPC 1946-50)

We extend our sympathy to the family of Joseph Gerard (Gerry) Joyce (SPC 1946-50), who passed away of renal failure on December 20, 2019 after a long illness.

A service was held at the Chapel of the Holy Spirit, Newman College, at the University of Melbourne on December 30, 2019. Gerry was the loved husband of Marie, brother of Margaret (dec), Adrian, Anna (dec) and Rose Mary, father of Paul, Sarah, Catherine, Damian and Justine and grandfather of 14.

Gerry was a boarder at SPC and was an active participant in many areas, including the Sodality of Our Lady, Holy Name Society Executive, Senior Literary and Debating Society, St Vincent de Paul and was a member of rowing.

Gerry was a remembered to those who knew him as an “urologist, farmer, teacher, friend”. Gerry was born in Ararat in 1932 where his father was a local general practitioner. Gerry matriculated at St Patrick’s College and studied medicine at University of Melbourne, graduating in 1957. He became a resident medical Officer at St Vincent’s and then, the Royal Children’s Hospital before becoming a missionary surgeon in 1961 to the African Congo with the Red Cross and was awarded the Royal Red Cross award for his service.

Having decided to become a urologist, Gerry became the Smith Kline French Urology Fellow at St Vincent’s Hospital in 1963, and spent three years training there obtaining his Fellowship (FRACS in urology) in 1965. He was then appointed Consultant urologist at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne in 1967 and began working on the kidney transport team which started in 1968. He worked as a urologist at PANCH Hospital from 1972 to 1988 and was eventually head of the unit. When Panch was closed, he became urologist at the Northern Hospital until 1997. He was also the urologist at the Mercy Hospital for Women between 1972 and 1999 and performed many restorative surgeries for injured ureters and bladders, often as an emergency and regularly at inconvenient times in the day and night.

He retired from St Vincent’s public hospital in 1997, but continued on for many years as a lithotripter stone smashing surgeon. He was remembered as “the embodiment of a caring and compassionate physician which made St Vincent’s Hospital a unique environment in which to learn and practice the art of medicine.

His wife Marie described Gerry as a “man of great integrity and goodness; loyal, practical and thoughtful and a truly wonderful husband and father”. Gerry was remembered as a great storyteller and who loved the land.

A decision to buy a farm in the Wimmera, northeast of Ararat in 1972, was deemed a life-changing decision and for 40 years, became an extraordinary gathering place for family and friends.