This is a story of resiliency and adaptability. It is about a medical doctor who found himself working on three continents within one decade, a situation which necessitated redesigning his career to meet shifting circumstances. After a medical missionary career in India, Bill Robertson would have a second, very different, career in Canada, both careers occurring at times of immense change.

With his eight year medical missionary career behind him, Bill returned to the United Kingdom in the 1960s to face the daunting task of restructuring his career within a tightly restricted medical environment. When a government decision affected a clinical option, he shifted to a National Health System medical administrative position with responsibilities for half a million people. This move would, in time, lead to an invitation to Canada. In Canada he first held a faculty position at a leading medical school, and later, two senior executive positions, provincially and federally, in the newly emerging Canadian Medicare system. For a brief spell, he left the federal government to work as a private consultant in planning a thousand bed health science complex in the eastern part of Canada. Prior to retirement, he returned to the federal government as the Chief Medical Officer of Veterans Affairs Canada.

In retirement, Bill had time to focus on his love of spirituality, gardening, teaching, writing and editing. This story should appeal to those interested in a medical career which spanned different geographical and health industry dimensions, the evolutionary demands of a publically funded health system, and the flexibility required in a health industry career in the latter part of the twentieth century.