Robert Bohdan Mikolaj (Bob) Ravich was born on 26 August 1937 in Gdansk, Poland. He immigrated to New Zealand after World War II and later studied medicine at the University of Otago, graduating in 1962. He was a resident at Christchurch Hospital, then a senior medical registrar and senior registrar in haematology. In 1968 he took up an appointment in Australia as a senior research fellow in haematology at the Kanematsu Institute, Sydney Hospital, and became an honorary visiting physician at the hospital in 1970. After taking up a position at the University of Michigan in the United States between 1970 and 1971, Bob was made a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1972.
In 1971, Bob established a private practice as a consultant physician in clinical haematology and general medicine in Macquarie Street, Sydney, later moving to St Leonards and Crows Nest, where he continued to build a thriving practice with an ethos of excellence in patient care, until handing over to colleagues on his retirement in 2006.
