Who were the ‘founders’?

The Founders’ Building at International House was officially opened in 2008. But who were the ‘founders’? The founders were a group of people closely associated with the beginnings and early history of IH. In his history of International House, Professor Emeritus Frank Larkins identifies twenty ‘founders’, all of whom were closely involved with planning International House before the first students arrived in 1957 (Larkins, 2018, pp. 34-37). They are:

• Richard Casey (1890–1976)
• Albert Coates (1895–1977)
• Ronald Cowen (1914–1964)
• Rupert Cumming (1918-2002)
• Arthur Dean (1893–1970)
• Samuel Dimmick (1922–1984)
• Constance Duncan (1896–1970)
• Colin Gilray (1885–1974)
• Norman Harper (1906–1986)
• Mavis Jackson (1913–2000)
• Abinasti Jerath (1928–1989)
• John Medley (1891–1962)
• Angus Mitchell (1884–1961)
• George Paton (1902–1985)
• Alice Paton (1905–1994)
• Benjamin Rank (1911–2002)
• Ian Clunies Ross (1899–1959)
• Gwen Stahl (1898–1986)
• Rajaratnam Sundarson (1929–2017)
• Samuel Wadham (1891–1972)
• Olive Wykes (later Mence) (1921–2016)

Larkins writes of this group that they ‘provided the strong leadership, vision, enthusiasm, commitment and dedication to enable the dream [of International House] to become a reality (Larkins, 2018, p. 33). The Founders’ Building helps us to remember their work.

References

Larkins, F. (2018). International House Melbourne: Sixty years of fraternitas. Melbourne University Publishing.