22 November 2010

Frank Fenner passes away

22 November 2010 | johnboy

ANU are announcing the death of Emeritus Professor Frank Fenner AC.

“He will be sorely missed and fondly remembered by academics, students and all of us at ANU, and many people elsewhere.

“His contribution, at and to ANU, to the nation, and indeed the world, is difficult to quantify because it is so wide-ranging.

Amongst many achievements the long time Canberra resident eradicated smallpox.

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Clown Killer10:59 pm 23 Nov 10

Can I pass you another shovel?

breda7:49 pm 23 Nov 10

“you know well that the Riot-Act is not the place for respect for the dead. Witness the Mully threads.”

You are comparing Frank Fenner to Mully?

You need help – and that is a charitable assessment.

I-filed7:48 pm 23 Nov 10

Clown Killer, no hole. The Riotact is a local forum. Indeed, federal politics topics aren’t cased here. The topics are parochial. Frank Fenner’s death is posted here because he’s local. His water use is therefore at least as relevant on this particular forum as his international regard. Possiby even more so.

Clown Killer6:36 pm 23 Nov 10

Dude, normally when you find yourself at the bottom of a very deep hole, the accepted practice is to quit digging, but by all means, continue …

I-filed6:22 pm 23 Nov 10

Well Clown-Killer, you know well that the Riot-Act is not the place for respect for the dead. Witness the Mully threads. Watering legally and profligately is one thing – being a hypocrite e.g. taking a public stance as an environmentalist while doing said watering is quite another. Denying Fenner’s flawed behaviour in this aspect of his life is optional. I choose not to.

edlang10:45 am 23 Nov 10

I worked at JCSMR for a few years in the early 2000s. Like many there, I was amazed by Frank’s stamina: even as an emeritus professor, he would be the first to arrive at work, staying until late in the day. I don’t think any of us wanted the next day to be Frank’s last.

While I was there, Frank shared an area (office? I forget) with Gordon Ada, who is still alive. I hope Gordon gets to speak at Frank’s funeral!

Mr_Shab9:40 am 23 Nov 10

Jeeze I-filed. We see some blowhardery on this site, but that really takes the cake. That’s got to be one of the most small-minded, petty, pathetic pieces of niggling I’ve ever seen.

Given Frank Fenner’s contributions to virology (which were nothing short of world-changing), and his ongoing philanthropy, I think we can turn a blind eye when he uses a licensed bore to water his property. Christ, I think almost everybody in the city would be more than happy to let Frank have a few more litres on them.

If that’s the best you’ve got in terms of denegrating the man, then I’d say he is damned near perfect.

NoaddedMSG @#8 – I’m sure that Fenner and Clunies-Ross would have been pretty certain that injecting themselves with Myxomavirus wasn’t going to kill them before they went ahead and did it. They certainly weren’t stupid. What the true facts of the matter are, you’ve got to admire the showmanship and the clever way they defused a potentially very volatile situation.

Jerry Atric8:27 am 23 Nov 10

Frank Fenner established the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies in 1973, doing what he called “a lateral arabesque”. The first major project of CRES was the study of the Murray Darling Basin environment and economy, in collaboration with the Academy of Science. It failed to get political support because of the poisonous relationship between the Federal (Labor) and NSW (Liberal) governments. If it had been followed through, we may not have the mess we now have.

Frank was not out there eradicating smallpox, he was the Chair of the UN committee that oversaw it, and he went to Africa to certify the last death from the disease. While he gave huge and quite private support to environmental projects, he always remained a virologist at heart.

Clown Killer7:39 am 23 Nov 10

I think that selfish attitude was a great stain on his character.

Seriously? For watering a garen with a legal and licensed bore? Are you on drugs?

CraigT6:50 am 23 Nov 10

The point about the selfish and profligate use of groundwater is a good one to make, as others in Red Hill are still at it.

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