Ms Margaret Gurry AM
Photo: Ms Margaret Gurry AM
Australian Catholic University (ACU National) awarded renowned community activist Margaret Gurry AM with its highest honour, Doctor of the University (Honoris Causa), at its annual Melbourne graduation ceremony for Education students on Monday 28 May 2007.
More than 380 students from ACU National’s Melbourne Campus (St Patrick’s) graduated at the ceremony, held at Melbourne Town Hall, with Ms Gurry providing the occasional address to graduates.ACU National Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Sheehan AO said Ms Gurry had made extraordinary improvements in the lives of “society’s neglected people” through her tireless work in the community.
“Margaret Gurry has dedicated her life to community engagement, lending a helping hand wherever she sees people in need,” Professor Sheehan said. “As an active member of the St Vincent de Paul Society, Margaret recognised early on in her career the importance of helping people lift themselves out of poverty and structures that severely limit their life opportunities.
“It is Margaret’s tireless work with the so-called Friday Night School that has truly touched society’s nerve of social neglect. Focusing on the children of Melbourne’s high-rise flats – those with no educational assistance at home, those for whom English was a second language – Margaret took up the challenge of providing much-needed education beyond the confines of a classroom. The volunteer-run school is now in its 11th year.
“Less well known is Margaret’s extraordinary work with the Melbourne Refugee Sanctuary Group, as a Director of the Sisters of Charity Foundation, and as a member of the Australia Association of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a charitable trust. Her overall commitment to bettering lives was recognised in 2004 when she was made a Member of the General Division of the Order of Australia. Margaret is a highly deserving recipient of ACU National’s highest honour.”
Ms Gurry is a qualified nurse, having trained at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital in the 1960s. In a long and varied career, she has most notably used her skills in nursing, midwifery and intensive care to treat those suffering from malaria and other tropical diseases in Papua New Guinea.
