Speech to Commerce Graduates at the University of Melbourne (2003)

Abstract

First, may I express appreciation and delight at the honour my alma mater has done me today? Coming to the University of Melbourne in 1950 to read (as we pseudo-poms would say) for the Degree of Bachelor of Commerce was to enter a paradise I have never left. I owe an immeasurable amount to that time at the University and at Queen’s, especially to my teachers and fellow students then, as now, an overlapping set of friends. I am therefore more than delighted that Allan Barton, Maureen Brunt, Marj Harper, Joe Isaac and Bob Wallace are able to be here today; as I am that Joan, Tim and Jo, John and other members of our clan are here. Overriding all other reasons why the University of Melbourne was paradise was that it was where I first met Joan.