February 21, 2014

Visionary leaves health legacy

The visionary academic who drove the development of the University of Wollongong’s Medical School described it as “everything I could have hoped for” at his farewell function on Tuesday 11 February.

Professor Don Iverson is leaving UOW this month after almost 13 years in a number of senior positions to join Swinburne University in Melbourne.

Professor Iverson joined UOW in 2001 as Dean of Health and Behavioural Sciences. He later served as Executive Dean of Health and Behavioural Sciences, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Health, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health and Executive Director of the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute (IHMRI).

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor John Patterson said Professor Iverson was leaving behind the legacy of UOW’s Medical School and IHMRI that represent a significant and lasting contribution to the University and the community.

Professor Patterson said Canadian-born Professor Iverson “came to Wollongong with a deserved international profile, and used that to the distinct advantage of the University”.

Professor Iverson was a visionary who saw the “big picture” and was extraordinarily inspirational, Professor Patterson said.

“He took a vision that none of us had and created a Medical School”, Professor Patterson said, adding that he had made “a magnificent, sustained contribution to the fabric, ethos and outcomes of this place”.

“And I doubt whether I have met a more generous person, prepared to give you anything from the shirt on his back to his time …” He recounted how Professor Iverson, who had served on a number of high-level cancer research boards in North America and Australia, would always go to great lengths to offer advice and provide the most up-to-date treatment information for friends, colleagues or even strangers who had just received a diagnosis of cancer.

“There are people alive today because of Don’s help and advice,” Professor Patterson said.

(This writer can attest to this, having been the grateful recipient of Don’s advice and guidance after a cancer diagnosis in 2009).

In response, Professor Iverson said he had loved his time living in Wollongong and working at UOW, paying tribute to the many talented academics and other staff he had worked with.

“My whole career has been unplanned (but) Wollongong is the longest I’ve been in my career, and the most comfortable I’ve been anywhere,” Professor Iverson said. “The greatest gift has been the friendships and relationships I have been able to have. There have been so many people here who did things to make my life better and richer.”

He praised former Vice-Chancellor, Emeritus Professor Gerard Sutton, for his leadership in planting the seed in 2002 that led to the opening of the Medical School in 2007.

“The Medical School is everything I could have hoped for,” he said.

And he praised the people who had helped him turn the Medical School vision into reality, including Professor Wilf Yeo, who he persuaded to move from the University of Sheffield Medical School, and Government Relations Manager Canio Fierravanti who he said had “opened the door” to the Prime Minister’s Office in Canberra to get approval for the School. But he reserved special praise for the Medical School’s Foundation Dean, the late Emeritus Professor John Hogg who “gave up his surgical career and a flourishing business to help make something that means this community will be forever changed.”

Professor Iverson has been appointed Dean of the Faculty of Health, Arts and Design at Swinburne, and vowed to build a stronger relationship between Swinburne and UOW.

“I intend to increase the relationship between Swinburne and Wollongong, and hopefully make both parties more successful. I will build ties whenever I can see them,” he said.

Report: NICK HARTGERINK

Pictures: SEAN MAGUIRE