Ivan Lichter

Ivan Lichter (14 March 1918 – 12 June 2009) was a thoracic surgeon and a pioneer in the field of palliative care in New Zealand. He was appointed to the Order of New Zealand, the country's highest honour and limited to 20 living people, in the 1997 Queen's Birthday Honours.

Early life Lichter was born in Oudtshoorn, Cape Province, South Africa, on 14 March 1918. He received his secondary education from Grey High School in Port Elizabeth. He graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in 1940, He had the choice between a place in Texas and a place in New Zealand that he thought was called "Dune Din"; he settled on the latter and came to Dunedin with his family.

Among the organisation that Lichter belonged to were: Advisory Board of Palliative Medicine International Advisory Committee to the International Congress on the Care of the Terminally Ill Executive of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine, of which he was a founding member.

Death Lichter died in Auckland on 12 June 2009, at the age of 91.