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Vale Peggy O’Leary : Departmental Secretary 1970-1983
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Earlier members of the Department will be saddened to learn that Peggy O’Leary died in Harare, Zimbabwe, in April 2006.
Peggy was with us when the Department was established in January 1970 and contributed in many ways to its development. She took a particular interest in the students, knew each one of them, and gave considerable attention to their welfare. She also helped in welcoming new members of staff, notably Dr John Griffiths, as she had happened to work for his father in the British Colonial Service in Africa!
Her lunchtimes were often spent spinning wool in her office, much to the amusement of visitors.
Peggy came to Melbourne in the mid-1960s from the former Tanganyika where she was once the Ladies Golf Champion. At Monash, she worked first in the Faculty of Arts, before transferring to the Department of Civil Engineering where she became Secretary to Professor Ian Polmear when he took up his appointment to the Chair of Materials Science in 1967. When she retired in 1983, she decided to return to her birthplace in Harare where she still had a number of relatives. Despite Zimbabwe’s many problems, she was happy there until recently when her health began to fail. Those who knew her will remember her with affection.
Ian Polmear
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