Minocher Mody was born into a middle class Parsee family in Bilimora, Gujarat, India. His father, Bamanji Mody, was a ship’s doctor. When Minocher was 10 years old the family moved to Bombay, where he went first to the Esplanade High School and then to a Jesuit College, St Xavier’s, for premedical studies. He went on to the Grant Medical College, pursuing his clinical studies at the J J Group of Hospitals, Bombay.
After graduation he came to London, on borrowed money, and dedicated himself to further study, obtaining his London MB BS within a year of arrival. He then spent some time at the Liverpool Tropical School, where he obtained his DTM, and his membership of the College while studying for his doctorate.
On his return to Bombay he was appointed honorary assistant physician at the G T Hospital and some seven years later transferred to the parent institution, the Sir J J Group of Hospitals, where he served until his retirement. He continued to serve the Grant Medical College for many years as honorary physician, teacher and examiner, and was also attached to three private hospitals in an honorary capacity. He had a rapidly growing private practice in Bombay and became known as one of Bombay’s leading physicians; a compassionate and caring physician, for no patient was ever turned away for any reason and many were treated free of charge. Every month he took weekend trips out of Bombay to visit a tuberculosis sanatorium and an old people’s home, where he attended the poor. In an age of declining moral values and increasing avarice, he was a doctor who truly represented the Hippocratic tradition. He was capable of a prodigious amount of work which regularly covered a 12-14 hour day.
Mody was a voracious reader, with an acutely receptive mind and retentive memory, which enabled him to keep pace with the changing modes of medicine. A great deal of his reading was done while he was being driven to hospital, or to the homes of patients, and he was equally at home with all branches of medicine, and able to discourse knowledgeably on most subjects.
As a teacher, he attracted students from all over the College. He was an astute clinician in an environment where special investigations were seldom available or, at best, unreliable. Generations of students trained by him have distinguished themselves, not only in India but throughout the world.
In 1932 he married a fellow medical student, Piroja, daughter of Nusservanji N Mody, a merchant, and they had three children; a son who followed in his footsteps to become a consultant physician, and two daughters - one of whom is a psychiatrist. His wife both supported and maintained his home, since he had little regard for money and financial records. As well as running the house, she also ran a GP clinic.
Minocher Mody always had a great love of cricket, a game he played with skill, being in his college team and, later, always ready to participate in staff/student matches at J J Hospital.
He had a long and productive life, well fulfilled.
Sir Gordon Wolstenholme
V Luniewska