William [Bill] Hunter
Obituary of Bill Hunter 1938-2017. Author: Lesley Hunter
{The Age Saturday March 18 2017}
William [Bill to everyone] Hunter was born to Scottish parents Jim and Jessie Hunter in Dundee, Scotland in July 1938.
A scrawny scallywag of a kid, Bill was an early reader of classic literature under the tutorship of his policeman father Jim.
On the day King George VI died, February 6, 1952, the Hunter family departed Tilbury docks in London on the ship Ranchi, bound for a new life in Melbourne, Australia.
When the Ranchi docked in Melbourne it received the customary greeting of bagpipes played by the Footscray Pipe Band.
Bill, still a scrawny teenager, quickly lost his tell-tale Scottish accent as he relished high school at Coburg High; matriculating and moving to university to study economics, engineering and part-time philosophy.
His working career began as a draftsman with the PMG before moving to the Department of Transport in Canberra, where he took the role of lighthouse engineer to Victoria and New South Wales. At the same time brother Colin was lighthouse engineer to Queensland and Papua New Guinea.
Career changes took place until the late 1980s when Bill became principal engineer of the Victorian Health Department.
Early retirement for Bill coincided with the outbreak of civil war in Rwanda. Bill seized the opportunity to work there under the auspices of AusAid as a member of a 10-man Australian volunteer team. Rwanda was in the grip of conflict between warring Hutu and Tutsi tribes. While Bill treated the mission as an adventure, reality was tough. Skeletons of massacred women wearing brightly-patterned dresses were found piled inside a church, the supply of electricity and water was non existent and danger threatened.
At the end of the Rwandan assignment, Bill wore the mantle of "volunteer in third world countries" easily. Subsequent volunteer postings with the emphasis on engineering took place in South East Asia and the Pacific region. Under the same AusAid volunteer banner, Bill's economic background led to him being a team player in the delivery of company director training courses to various Pacific Island nations and to Aboriginal communities within Australia.
For Bill, retirement was not all work and no play. He set his sights on running a three hour Melbourne Marathon and together with his wife Lesley, he swam the last five kilometre Yarra Swim in the early 1990s, trekked three times to the base of Mt Everest and sacred Muktinath in Nepal and rode his bicycle in France. In 2007 he and Lesley rode their bicycles from Prague to Venice.
Well known locally for his ability to capture a face in oil paint, in retirement from retirement Bill Painted. He was also passionate about working with wood; designing and creating bespoke furniture as well as understanding pieces of natural timber and transforming them into free-form wood sculptures.
The essence of Bill Hunter was not in his athletic pursuits nor in his artistic ability. He was a great humanitarian.
He was the person to pick up an Aboriginal woman who lay blood spattered in the gutter in Alice Springs. Bill's compassionate nature saw him understand the difficulties within Aboriginal communities. He had insight into needy street kids in Nepal, India, Thailand and Vietnam. He gave away the jumper off his back.
A few years ago Bill Hunter had the privilege of registering as an organ donor. On his final day Bill also had the privilege of Knowing that his corneas would be accepted for transplantation. Through the Centre for Eye Research at Melbourne University, his family is thrilled to learn that Bill's corneas have been successfully transplanted into two men, one a
62-year-old and the other a 65-year-old. Both have had their sight restored.
As a result of his volunteer work in Rwanda and other developing countries, Bill was awarded two high honours: one by the Australian Government for his "valued contribution toward assisting developing countries reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development' and the other by his engineering peers, the Fred Hollows Award. Fred Hollows is revered for his work in saving sight. What better legacy for Bill than the pride the family carries in knowing that both corneal recipients can now watch their grandchildren grow.
At Bill's final farewell, a Gathering of the Clans at Clunes on a beautiful sunny February day, the strain of bagpipes filled the air. The piper later recalled that he was one of the Footscray pipers who welcomed Bill to Australia in 1952.
Bill Hunter is survived by his second wife Lesley and his children Julie, Scott, Cameron and Steven.
{The Age Saturday March 18 2017}
William [Bill to everyone] Hunter was born to Scottish parents Jim and Jessie Hunter in Dundee, Scotland in July 1938.
A scrawny scallywag of a kid, Bill was an early reader of classic literature under the tutorship of his policeman father Jim.
On the day King George VI died, February 6, 1952, the Hunter family departed Tilbury docks in London on the ship Ranchi, bound for a new life in Melbourne, Australia.
When the Ranchi docked in Melbourne it received the customary greeting of bagpipes played by the Footscray Pipe Band.
Bill, still a scrawny teenager, quickly lost his tell-tale Scottish accent as he relished high school at Coburg High; matriculating and moving to university to study economics, engineering and part-time philosophy.
His working career began as a draftsman with the PMG before moving to the Department of Transport in Canberra, where he took the role of lighthouse engineer to Victoria and New South Wales. At the same time brother Colin was lighthouse engineer to Queensland and Papua New Guinea.
Career changes took place until the late 1980s when Bill became principal engineer of the Victorian Health Department.
Early retirement for Bill coincided with the outbreak of civil war in Rwanda. Bill seized the opportunity to work there under the auspices of AusAid as a member of a 10-man Australian volunteer team. Rwanda was in the grip of conflict between warring Hutu and Tutsi tribes. While Bill treated the mission as an adventure, reality was tough. Skeletons of massacred women wearing brightly-patterned dresses were found piled inside a church, the supply of electricity and water was non existent and danger threatened.
At the end of the Rwandan assignment, Bill wore the mantle of "volunteer in third world countries" easily. Subsequent volunteer postings with the emphasis on engineering took place in South East Asia and the Pacific region. Under the same AusAid volunteer banner, Bill's economic background led to him being a team player in the delivery of company director training courses to various Pacific Island nations and to Aboriginal communities within Australia.
For Bill, retirement was not all work and no play. He set his sights on running a three hour Melbourne Marathon and together with his wife Lesley, he swam the last five kilometre Yarra Swim in the early 1990s, trekked three times to the base of Mt Everest and sacred Muktinath in Nepal and rode his bicycle in France. In 2007 he and Lesley rode their bicycles from Prague to Venice.
Well known locally for his ability to capture a face in oil paint, in retirement from retirement Bill Painted. He was also passionate about working with wood; designing and creating bespoke furniture as well as understanding pieces of natural timber and transforming them into free-form wood sculptures.
The essence of Bill Hunter was not in his athletic pursuits nor in his artistic ability. He was a great humanitarian.
He was the person to pick up an Aboriginal woman who lay blood spattered in the gutter in Alice Springs. Bill's compassionate nature saw him understand the difficulties within Aboriginal communities. He had insight into needy street kids in Nepal, India, Thailand and Vietnam. He gave away the jumper off his back.
A few years ago Bill Hunter had the privilege of registering as an organ donor. On his final day Bill also had the privilege of Knowing that his corneas would be accepted for transplantation. Through the Centre for Eye Research at Melbourne University, his family is thrilled to learn that Bill's corneas have been successfully transplanted into two men, one a
62-year-old and the other a 65-year-old. Both have had their sight restored.
As a result of his volunteer work in Rwanda and other developing countries, Bill was awarded two high honours: one by the Australian Government for his "valued contribution toward assisting developing countries reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development' and the other by his engineering peers, the Fred Hollows Award. Fred Hollows is revered for his work in saving sight. What better legacy for Bill than the pride the family carries in knowing that both corneal recipients can now watch their grandchildren grow.
At Bill's final farewell, a Gathering of the Clans at Clunes on a beautiful sunny February day, the strain of bagpipes filled the air. The piper later recalled that he was one of the Footscray pipers who welcomed Bill to Australia in 1952.
Bill Hunter is survived by his second wife Lesley and his children Julie, Scott, Cameron and Steven.
