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Tribute to Associate Professor Anne Bray
(29 October 1944 to 18 June 2008)
Courage, Faith and Chocolate Fudge Cake!
Anne's commitment to the field of intellectual disability has been life-long. Anne would often attribute her strong commitment to the rights of people with disability to the lessons she learned from her parents, and from her brother Michael. At a time when families were actively encouraged to institutionalise their children with disabilities, Michael remained with his family, and attended his local school. Thus Anne's strong sense of social justice was born.
Anne began her teaching career as a teaching fellow at Canterbury University in 1974 before being appointed to the position of lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Otago. Disability issues always featured prominently in her teaching, and perhaps even more importantly, some of Anne's most enduring friendships and professional relationships began during this time.
In 1984 Anne was appointed as Assistant Director of the New Zealand Institute of Mental Retardation (now the Donald Beasley Institute) before being appointed Director in 1986. During the years from 1986-1989 Anne's efforts were centred on activities designed to raise the profile of the Institute. 1989 also signalled the first of many large research projects with the commencement of the Otago Family Network project. This project in many ways laid the foundation for the ongoing work of the Institute and the lasting bonds created by this project were illustrated on the morning after Anne's death when a number of those who participated in this project, now nearly twenty years old, gathered at the Institute to remember Anne.
The following are some of the projects and achievements of which Anne was most proud:
The innovation of the Family Network Project demonstrated Anne's commitment to working in partnership with people with disabilities, families, and professionals. The fact that this project led to the development of a non-profit, independent organization, which is still in operation today, perhaps typifies Anne-s desire to conduct research that really makes a difference.
Another major milestone in the journey towards research security occurred in 1994 with the Institute's first Foundation for Research Science and Technology Grant - a series of four individual projects all linked to a common theme of family and disability. This allowed Anne to grow her staff, and to begin to create some stability for her research team.
During the mid-1990's the Institute also began to develop a relationship with the Health Research Council of New Zealand and Anne's tireless advocacy contributed to the HRC identifying disability research as a research priority area. Anne was probably most proud of her association with the development of the HRC Disability Research Placement Programme - an initiative designed to build capacity in the disability research arena.
In 2001 Anne formally reconnected with the University of Otago after being appointed to the Board of Graduate Studies and she eventually became Chair of that Committee. In 2005 she was promoted to Associate Professor - Research within the Faculty of Health Sciences. Anne remained committed to her postgraduate supervision. Anne loved nothing more that seeing her student's work through to completion and this was a passion that endured right through to her last days. While she was too unwell to contribute actively, some of my last conversations with Anne were about her postgraduate students with her continuing to express great satisfaction in their ongoing progress and of course to express her opinion about how things should be going.
During the past two years Anne's lifelong commitment to the disability and research sectors have been formally recognised. In 2006 Anne was awarded with the honour of the New Zealand Order of Merit for contribution to disability. Due to Anne's ill health the investiture took place at the Institute in the presence of Anne's family, friends and colleagues - this was a proud achievement for Anne.
Also in 2006 Anne was awarded the University of Otago supervisor of the year award. This was a particularly special award to Anne as it directly reflected the esteem within which she was held, by her postgraduate students. Her students noted not only her academic expertise but also the care and empathy that she showed them as they traversed the often emotional process of postgraduate research.
Finally, in 2007 Anne was nominated for the honour of Fellow of the Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disability. Anne was very proud to receive this award and also very humbled to have been recognised by her research peers for her contribution to the field of intellectual disability.
Those of us who have worked with Anne, whether closely or intermittently, will agree that Anne's greatest gift was her willingness to give of her time. She was always interested in the ideas of others and she was supremely egalitarian when it came to sharing her expertise.
Whilst Anne's professional contribution has been considerable, it is important to emphasise Anne's qualities of kindness, warmth, generosity and her sense of fairness.
While going through some of Anne's old papers recently we found a keynote presentation that she had developed for an international conference. The paper was about doing disability research and Anne had titled the paper "Courage, Faith and Chocolate Fudge Cake!". The reference to chocolate cake reflected Anne's belief that involvement in research should be a rewarding experience to everyone involved in the process. We would like to quote Anne directly:
"...We must ensure that research is undertaken for a clear purpose - to directly or indirectly improve the lives of people with disabilities... We must undertake research in consultation and collaboration with people with disabilities themselves. We must also take responsibility to ensure our research does influence change in a positive and timely manner. Our responsibility to disseminate research is lifelong".
It is not possible to overestimate the extent to which Anne has influenced and impacted on disability policy, disability practice, or disability research in this country. More importantly, in devoting an entire career to these issues Anne has without doubt created positive change in the everyday lives of people with disabilities and we know she would see this as her most important legacy.
If you would like to read Minister of Disability Issues Ruth Dyson's tribute to Anne, click on this link: www.beehive.govt.nz/release/tribute+anne+bray
