Fictional Obituary

I was advised that when creating characters for novels//stores it is a good idea to create an obituary for them to help you create the character in your own mind before expecting a reader to truly know them..Here is my obituary (name/details changed) from my novel in progress. The character only plays a small, more mentioned than active part, but I thought I'd ask for other writer's opinions on the subject.


Doctor Victor Normans was an incredible man born in Earswalk ,UK on 24th February 1936.to Margaret and Edwin Normans.

An only child he was the top of the class in every subject he took, which he later accredited to his "constant curiosity" of which he was famed and which later led him to graduate from Oxford University in 1963 with a Masters Degree in Human Biology. He then went on to become a globally respected surgeon.

His knighthood in 1980 came as little surprise to those who knew him best due to his world renowned publications of "SURGERY: INSIDE YOUR INSIDES" which are still to this day used as textbooks globally by those studying the surgical profession..

People say it is a shame Victor never married or had children to pass his legacy on to, but others, myself included, will tell you that he was married to his work. His children are all the lives he saved in his work and will continue to do so by passing his knowledge and experience on to surgeons in his textbooks. That is his legacy.

Vic, as he liked to be known, was involved in the pioneering of countless surgical procedures and retired two years ago after falling ill to malignant heart cancer, dying on 23rd May 2011 in Earswalk Hospital where he was born, took his first job as a surgeon and where he chose to die.

He told anyone visiting him there that  it was his "time to go" but we all know, he will never truly be gone. He will be remembered forever through his textbooks and the knowledge he passed on that will last forever.

He was survived by no immediate family and left all his worldly belongings to Oxford University's School of Surgery of which he was a founder.