Donald was one of three children, all of whom ended up working in the field of medicine; his brother, Douglas, was a urologist and his sister, Dorothy, was a nurse.
[2] He served in the Middle East, Syria and New Guinea[3] and in the Kokoda Track campaign, which was vital in stopping the Japanese invasion of Australia.
[1] Once discharge from the Army, and having earned his MD the previous year, Duffy was awarded a Nuffield Dominion Travelling Fellowship, which took him to London, where he worked with Professor Clifford Wilson in experimental studies on hypertension and nephritis.
At the Austin Hospital, Duffy, along with Keith Bradley and Tom Patrick, was responsible for creating the Spinal Unit.
[6] However, in round 9 Melbourne lost to St Kilda by ten goals, which was the worst loss of Smith's coaching career and when the Demons then lost two of their next three games Duffy and his board made the decision to sack Smith,[6] who later went on to be named AFL Coach of the Century.
[6] After a severe public backlash to the decision, Smith was reinstated as coach by the board the very next day, which was again front-page news.
Nominated by Ivor Warne-Smith, Duffy was elected to the committee on 26 August 1960 and, after 26 years of service, resigned on 1 January 1987.
Mary was a physiotherapist who served overseas with the Australian military forces during World War II and the sister of prominent paediatrician, John Colebatch.