Macquarie celebrated some of its longest serving employees last week at an event for staff who had reached the milestones of 25 or more than 40 years of dedicated service to the University.

With more than 1,200 years of collective experience at Macquarie, the group were commended for their industry and effort by Vice-Chancellor Professor S Bruce Dowton at a formal reception held at the Art Gallery.

“You have all helped to guide, advise and shape the University,” said Professor Dowton. “I hope you look around and have a sense of pride as to where the University is today, but also very importantly the sense of purpose, understanding and mentorship that you have all provided.”

A memento plaque was awarded to staff who had reached the 25-year milestone, while those who had served more than 40 years of service were awarded a commemorative timepiece.

Dr Richard Flood, Senior Lecturer from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences is one of two of our longest serving employees. He arrived at Macquarie 46 years ago as a tutor, only to discover the campus was a construction site.

“I recall the campus was dotted with the houses of the market gardener families who had once owned the land,” said Richard. “The rock teaching collections were still in the garage of a house on Culloden Road that had served as the School of Earth Sciences prior to the beginning of teaching in 1967.”

“In a relatively few short years, the central part of the campus changed to look much as it does today with the planning oversight of the late Wally Abraham,” he added.

Richard says the highlight of his time on campus has been supervising students.

“I’ve had a large number of wonderful Honours students over the years, with four being awarded a University Medal, including the first awarded to a geoscience graduate, as well as a number of great MSc and PhD students, with many of the latter going on to become academics themselves,” he said.

Read more about Dr Flood’s personal story on the Jubilee Hub.

Congratulations to all of our long serving staff:

46 years of service
Dr Richard Flood
Wenda Mitchell

44 years of service
Associate Professor Paul Cohen
Professor Alanna Nobbs
Professor John Stephens
Professor David Throsby

43 years of service
Professor Ross Street

42 years of service
Karin Dutton
Professor Suzanne O’Reilly
Professor Robert Spillane

41 years of service
Professor Murray Goot
David Westcott

40 years of service
Professor John Croucher
Jennifer Minard
Marisa Pongan

25 years of service
Associate Professor Brian Atwell
Kathleen Boehringer
Andrew Bradshaw
Associate Professor Glenn Brock
Rebecca Chan
Professor Naren Chitty
Jane Farquhar
Hazel Green
Dennis Harrold
Professor Michael Johnson
Associate Professor Roselyne Joyeux
Emilia Kanachowski
Professor Deborah Kane
Dr Judith Lattas
Susan Lynn
Dr Scott McCallum
Dr Ross Moore
Professor Brian Orr
Diane Paterson
Dr Catherine Patterson
Andrew Sendt
Keith Tonkin
Kathleen Wheeler
Gordon Willock
Catherine Wong