Rodger William Hilliker, MNZM MStJ

On his retirement after nearly 50 years as a GP, Rodger was made a Member of The New Zealand Order of Merit for his services as a General Practitioner, in the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours list.

Rodger attended King’s High School from 1948 to 1952. In 1952 Rodger was King's Head Boy. He was a member of the 1st XV and was awarded a King’s Blue for Rugby. Rodger was R.S.M.: W.O.1 in the Military Cadet Corp. He was selected as best cadet in Area XI in the William Robert Friar Competition. In 1951 he was awarded the Old Boys Prize for General Excellence in English, Mathematics, Chemistry, French and Latin. He gained University Entrance in 1951 and was on the Credit list for University Scholarship in 1953.

On leaving King's Rodger studied medicine at the University of Otago. He graduated M.B., Ch.B. 1959.

Rodger first arrived in South Canterbury as a medical student in 1957 and spent a couple of years at Timaru Hospital before moving to a Temuka practice in 1961. His first 12 years as a GP in Temuka were part-time as he was a part-time Anaesthetist for Timaru Hospital.

Rodger has received the Distinguished Service Medal of the Royal College of General Practitioners; he was presented with a long service medal by the Temuka Salvation Army; and was recognised by the Volunteer Fire Brigade, which declared him a life member. He was involved with St John Temuka for 49 years while in practice. He was invested as a Member of the Order of St John (MStJ).

He served as South Island representative on the New Zealand Medical Association's Central General Practitioner Committee. He was elected President of the association, was elected to its council, and chaired its Central Ethics Committee.

When the Practice Nurse Scheme was introduced in 1969, he was one of the first GPs in the country to employ a Practice Nurse, he hoped his advocacy for the nurses had had a positive influence on general practices today. As a sole doctor in the town having practice nurses made the doctor’s job much more manageable.  The nurses did an awful lot of the work that otherwise would be just impossible to cope with. They virtually took over a lot of the parts of general practice and did them better than the doctors did. In other words, they were better at giving babies injections, and they had real skills with doing dressings, cleaning out ears, doing all of those things.

While Rodger no longer practices, he was a driving force behind establishing a "one-stop shop" health centre to meet Temuka’s health care needs. The facility opened in 2016. Rodger hoped to include a receptionist, the practice nurse, the general practitioners and the other specialist groups that come into it – and this isn't just the medical specialists – it's the laboratory specialists, it's the radiography, it's all of these people working together for the benefit of the patient.

In recognition of Rodger’s service to the community the Timaru District Council Community Services Committee decided that an unnamed park in Temuka, is to be renamed Dr Hilliker Park.