Bob grew up in Macksville, on the north coast of New South Wales where he worked as a solicitor for some time after completing a Diploma in Law. He then undertook degree studies by extension from the University of New England and graduated with a BA in Philosophy with first class honors and was also awarded the University medal. He then completed a PhD, also from UNE.

Bob moved into academia at that stage and started up the Law program at UNE before joining the University of the South Pacific as Professor of Law and the Head of the School of Law at the end of 1996. He was then appointed the first Dean of Arts and Law in 2006. During his time at USP, Bob also served as acting Pro Vice-Chancellor on two occasions.

“With a career spanning more than 25 years in research, teaching, professional development and senior leadership, Professor Johnston has held posts at a number of Australian universities.

She was the inaugural Director of the Centre for the Enhancement of Learning, Teaching and Scholarship at the University of Canberra and later served as Director of the University of New England's Teaching and Learning Centre.

Last year, she was conferred the title of Emeritus Professor by the University of Tasmania in recognition of her contribution as the inaugural Pro Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning).

At a recent memorial celebration in Armidale, Emeritus Professor Grainger Morris was described as a “man for all seasons” who will be remembered for his modesty and encouragement of others.

In 1966, he arrived in Armidale to take up the Chair of Pure Mathematics at UNE. In accordance with the University's principle of rotating headships of departments where there was more than one professor, he and Professor RCT Smith alternated the headship of the Department of Mathematics for many years. Students responded to his gentlemanly, friendly teaching style and he continued to assist school students and members of U3A even after his retirement from UNE in 1985. What guided him was a belief that “giving and passing on knowledge, especially to young people, is what makes us”.

His significant contributions to the University and mathematics were recognised with the conferral of the title of Emeritus Professor in 1986.

Professor Morris was actively engaged in the world. Aside from his passion for maths, he was renowned as a polyglot, with a good command of Russian, French, Indonesian and Swedish. He had, in fact, learnt Russian so that when he was on sabbatical in Moscow, he could translate some of the writings on maths. He was also a keen bushwalker and long-time member of Alliance Française.

Up until the last few years, he led a rich and active life. He will be fondly remembered by the many people who had the chance to know him.

Professor Len Goddard

13/02/1925-26/05/2009

Philosophy was the life work of Professor Leonard Goddard. After leaving school, he started an apprenticeship in an architect's office and later joined the RAF. After the war, he studied Philosophy and Mathematics at St Andrew University, in Scotland, and then won a scholarship to Cambridge.

In 1956, he arrived at the relatively-new University of New England to take up a lectureship in Philosophy. He was later offered the Chair of Philosophy where he introduced the idea of UNE being an Australian postgraduate centre for formal logic. In the late 1960s he returned to St Andrews to take up the Chair of Logic and Metaphysics. Life in Australia, though, had been very pleasant and when he was appointed to the Boyce Gibson Chair of Philosophy at Melbourne University, he and his family moved back to Australia.

He was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2001 for services to Australian society and the humanities in the study of history and religion.

In a speech to graduating Arts students at St Andrews in 1971, he passed on the following words of advice:

“For the one thing I have discovered in the past 20 years is that people the world over want the same things, care about the same things, and, above all, care about each other. And this has always been, and always will be, our salvation. We may never find the right way to realise our ideals, but so long as we keep trying, it does not matter. People do. In the years that follow pause occasionally, return to the quiet beauty of this place and ask where you are going and why; where your country is going and why. And if your answers contain nothing about people, take a tip from David Hume and commit them to the flames for they will contain nothing but sophistry and illusion. But if, in the end, you can say I served my fellow men, then we who remain here will honour you, and our sons and daughters of the next generation.”