Chip Gresham

This page has been created for us all to share our love and memories of Chip. Please add your own words and images. Chip's family and friends around the world are loving seeing and remembering everyone's favourite Chip stories and adventures. 

From Chip's friends and colleagues at Middlemore Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand:

Chip joined our Middlemore ED team in August 2009 – almost eleven years to the day.  It is fair to say that Chip was generally a man of few words, and his humble reserved style was appreciated and admired by everyone he came into contact with. Whenever Chip spoke, we all listened carefully for the pearl of wisdom that would issue forth softly but firmly from his being.

Chip was a very accomplished Emergency Physician and Medical Toxicologist with many strings to his bow. His encyclopaedic knowledge of things toxicological was extremely beneficial for our group – he was always happy to be called after hours to assist with tricky cases – we valued that immensely. Chip was a consultant Medical Toxicologist at the National Poisons Centre in Dunedin from 2014. He published numerous articles relating to antivenoms and antidotes, and authored several Emergency Medicine toxicology textbook chapters. For the past few years Chip was the Clinical Director of Medication Safety at Middlemore and he was hugely instrumental in the implementation of Middlemore’s online medication prescribing.

Latterly Chip worked on developing his skills in the field of Disaster Medicine. He had a diploma in International Humanitarian Assistance, and was working on an MSci in Disaster Medicine. Chip was an Emergency Physician for the NZ Medical Assistance Team, (NZMAT), from 2013, and became a Medical Director of the NZ Emergency Management Assistance Team, (NZ EMAT), from May 2019. Chip’s most recent secondment over February to May 2020 was to Wellington where he served as the Medical Director / Clinical Advisor at the National Crisis Management Centre – All of Government Response to COVID – 19.

This is an amazing assortment of achievements and what makes these all the more remarkable is that Chip never ever boasted about how clever and accomplished he was. His quiet demeanour commanded respect, and colleagues from many facets of Middlemore admired and genuinely liked Chip. The purpose of this webpage is for everyone to talk about how Chip touched their lives – it is important in this time of grief that we can remember the good times with Chip, as well as expressing just how much we will all miss him.