NORMA RIGBY
Norma [Robertson] Rigby died in 2015.
The following is an extract from the obituary written by her daughter Kate and her niece Carolyn
The following is an extract from the obituary written by her daughter Kate and her niece Carolyn
Obituary: Norma Rigby, disability advocate
Pioneering Canberra disability advocate Norma Rigby was born to Alfred Campion Robertson and his wife, Victoria Violet Caroline (nee Marsh), in Coburg, an inner northern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. She was their second child, only 14 months younger than her beloved brother, William.
She grew up among her extended family, including her maternal grandmother Mary Ann Marsh, with whom her mother shared the care of older twin cousins, Sylvia and Beatrice, whose mother had died giving birth to them in 1915. An avid reader, Norma attended Coburg Primary School and then Coburg High School, having obtained top marks in the entrance exam. She continued to flourish, especially in French, taking out her Leaving Certificate in 1941. Concurrently, she took dancing lessons, engaged in competition gymnastics, sang in the church choir, taught Sunday School and learned the piano to the prestigious Licentiate Diploma level. She even performed in an ABC Concerto competition, but preferred teaching others.
Her ambition to be a teacher thwarted by a failed medical test, she found another path in an experimental program for children with intellectual disabilities selected from state institutions, which led to her enrolment in the Kindergarten Teacher's Training College. During World War II, she deciphered coded messages for Naval Intelligence.
In 1947, Norma married Harry Rigby, a fellow student from Coburg High School who at that time was studying political science and Russian at the University of Melbourne, with the benefit of a Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme Scholarship. Their first child, Richard, was born in March 1948. A daughter, Catherine (Kate), was born in April 1960.
During the 1950s, while accompanying Harry to London as he pursued an academic career, she completed a Diploma for Teachers of the Mentally Handicapped (with distinction), and in 1956 was awarded a diploma by the International Association of the Margaret Morris Health Play Movement. In 1966, she was granted a diploma from the British Training Council for Teachers of the Mentally Handicapped.
Settled in Canberra from 1954, she became involved with the establishment of Koomarri, the new school for children with intellectual disabilities (she was awarded a life membership in 1988). By 1959, she had secured the introduction of weekly wages for intellectually disabled workers and had pioneered practices in the provision of services for children and adults with disabilities.
In 1971, she was appointed foundation executive officer of the Australian Association for the Mentally Retarded (subsequently, National Council on Intellectual Disability, now Inclusion Australia), editing their first major publication, The Retarded: Pensions or Progress (1973), before moving to the position of honorary resource officer from 1977-84. In 1978 she was appointed a life fellow, and continued to edit their newsletter until she suffered a major stroke in 2009.
A Churchill Fellowship, in 1972, allowed her to investigate the work and structure of national voluntary organisations overseas, and on her return she was appointed to the Churchill Trust Selection Committee. One of the organisations she researched in Canada and the United States was L'Arche, an international federation dedicated to the creation and growth of homes, programs, and support networks with people with intellectual disabilities. Rigby subsequently assisted with the establishment L'Arche Australia, becoming a founding board member and, from 1983-86, national chairwoman.
From 1975-82, she served on the Prime Minister's National Advisory Council for the Handicapped as Convener of committees on children's services and on employment and training programs. In 1976 she was awarded an MBE for her work. From the 1980s she devoted her considerable energies to fund-raising and advocacy with bodies such as L'Arche and ACROD (the National Industry Association for Disability Services), becoming national patron of the Wing's Away Association, which funded the establishment of AAMR's library and later created a scholarship in the name of Norma and Harry Rigby.
In the 1990s, she concerned herself increasingly with employment, accommodation and aging issues, assisting people with intellectual disabilities to live independently.
Rigby's work was spurred by compassion and energised by her quiet Christian faith, but undertaken with a clear focus on practical outcomes and strategic planning. According to Eileen Glass, the founder of L'Arche Australia, "she was always to be found at the cutting edge where the thinking and practice in support of people who live with disabilities was happening. At the same time she was not afraid to question and challenge trends and practices which failed to fully respect the rights and needs of both people who live with a disability and their families."
Remarkably, she did all this (and more) while ably and lovingly fulfilling the roles of housewife and mother, thereby freeing Harry to focus on his work as an internationally renowned Sovietologist, and supporting him and their children in their varied activities.
Among the many tributes to Norma, several came from Harry's former colleagues, such as John Besemeres, who remembers her as "a wonderful woman, warm, intelligent, devoted both to her family and to all the communities to which she belonged, remarkably hospitable, courageous and kind".
She cultivated a wide circle of friends and took a deep interest in the lives of all her extended family, providing emotional support for her brother's children, Carolyn and David, when their mother died suddenly.
Always eager to explore the benefits of new technologies, Rigby never lost her delight in reading, taking great pleasure in studying Australian history and Shakespeare in her semi-retirement, and only her arthritis stopped her playing the piano and tending her garden. She also had a profound love for the natural world, and her sense of compassion and justice extended beyond the boundaries of her own kind.
Despite the physical infirmity of her difficult last years, Rigby remained engaged with the wider world, concerned with the lives of her loved ones, and capable of inspiring great affection and admiration, even among those who only met her during this time.
- Carolyn Rasmussen and Kate Rigby
Pioneering Canberra disability advocate Norma Rigby was born to Alfred Campion Robertson and his wife, Victoria Violet Caroline (nee Marsh), in Coburg, an inner northern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. She was their second child, only 14 months younger than her beloved brother, William.
She grew up among her extended family, including her maternal grandmother Mary Ann Marsh, with whom her mother shared the care of older twin cousins, Sylvia and Beatrice, whose mother had died giving birth to them in 1915. An avid reader, Norma attended Coburg Primary School and then Coburg High School, having obtained top marks in the entrance exam. She continued to flourish, especially in French, taking out her Leaving Certificate in 1941. Concurrently, she took dancing lessons, engaged in competition gymnastics, sang in the church choir, taught Sunday School and learned the piano to the prestigious Licentiate Diploma level. She even performed in an ABC Concerto competition, but preferred teaching others.
Her ambition to be a teacher thwarted by a failed medical test, she found another path in an experimental program for children with intellectual disabilities selected from state institutions, which led to her enrolment in the Kindergarten Teacher's Training College. During World War II, she deciphered coded messages for Naval Intelligence.
In 1947, Norma married Harry Rigby, a fellow student from Coburg High School who at that time was studying political science and Russian at the University of Melbourne, with the benefit of a Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme Scholarship. Their first child, Richard, was born in March 1948. A daughter, Catherine (Kate), was born in April 1960.
During the 1950s, while accompanying Harry to London as he pursued an academic career, she completed a Diploma for Teachers of the Mentally Handicapped (with distinction), and in 1956 was awarded a diploma by the International Association of the Margaret Morris Health Play Movement. In 1966, she was granted a diploma from the British Training Council for Teachers of the Mentally Handicapped.
Settled in Canberra from 1954, she became involved with the establishment of Koomarri, the new school for children with intellectual disabilities (she was awarded a life membership in 1988). By 1959, she had secured the introduction of weekly wages for intellectually disabled workers and had pioneered practices in the provision of services for children and adults with disabilities.
In 1971, she was appointed foundation executive officer of the Australian Association for the Mentally Retarded (subsequently, National Council on Intellectual Disability, now Inclusion Australia), editing their first major publication, The Retarded: Pensions or Progress (1973), before moving to the position of honorary resource officer from 1977-84. In 1978 she was appointed a life fellow, and continued to edit their newsletter until she suffered a major stroke in 2009.
A Churchill Fellowship, in 1972, allowed her to investigate the work and structure of national voluntary organisations overseas, and on her return she was appointed to the Churchill Trust Selection Committee. One of the organisations she researched in Canada and the United States was L'Arche, an international federation dedicated to the creation and growth of homes, programs, and support networks with people with intellectual disabilities. Rigby subsequently assisted with the establishment L'Arche Australia, becoming a founding board member and, from 1983-86, national chairwoman.
From 1975-82, she served on the Prime Minister's National Advisory Council for the Handicapped as Convener of committees on children's services and on employment and training programs. In 1976 she was awarded an MBE for her work. From the 1980s she devoted her considerable energies to fund-raising and advocacy with bodies such as L'Arche and ACROD (the National Industry Association for Disability Services), becoming national patron of the Wing's Away Association, which funded the establishment of AAMR's library and later created a scholarship in the name of Norma and Harry Rigby.
In the 1990s, she concerned herself increasingly with employment, accommodation and aging issues, assisting people with intellectual disabilities to live independently.
Rigby's work was spurred by compassion and energised by her quiet Christian faith, but undertaken with a clear focus on practical outcomes and strategic planning. According to Eileen Glass, the founder of L'Arche Australia, "she was always to be found at the cutting edge where the thinking and practice in support of people who live with disabilities was happening. At the same time she was not afraid to question and challenge trends and practices which failed to fully respect the rights and needs of both people who live with a disability and their families."
Remarkably, she did all this (and more) while ably and lovingly fulfilling the roles of housewife and mother, thereby freeing Harry to focus on his work as an internationally renowned Sovietologist, and supporting him and their children in their varied activities.
Among the many tributes to Norma, several came from Harry's former colleagues, such as John Besemeres, who remembers her as "a wonderful woman, warm, intelligent, devoted both to her family and to all the communities to which she belonged, remarkably hospitable, courageous and kind".
She cultivated a wide circle of friends and took a deep interest in the lives of all her extended family, providing emotional support for her brother's children, Carolyn and David, when their mother died suddenly.
Always eager to explore the benefits of new technologies, Rigby never lost her delight in reading, taking great pleasure in studying Australian history and Shakespeare in her semi-retirement, and only her arthritis stopped her playing the piano and tending her garden. She also had a profound love for the natural world, and her sense of compassion and justice extended beyond the boundaries of her own kind.
Despite the physical infirmity of her difficult last years, Rigby remained engaged with the wider world, concerned with the lives of her loved ones, and capable of inspiring great affection and admiration, even among those who only met her during this time.